[social_buttons]A coalition of 106 conservation organizations is supporting Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) as the next Secretary of the Interior, according to a letter from more than 78 groups sent to President-elect Obama and released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).





Grijalva is the current chair of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands which has jurisdiction over Interior Department matters.

The groups praised Grijalva for assembling what is regarded as one of the most “far sighted endangered species protection plans in the nation” and for his “leadership pressing Interior and other federal agencies to integrate global warming issues into their planning and permitting.”

The next Secretary of the Interior will be taking over an rocked by some ethics scandals including, among other things, the imprisonment of its top deputy, losses of tens of billions of dollars from under-collection of oil royalties and, most recently, revelation of sex and drug parties involving key Interior employees and oil company executives.