According to AP, Secretary of Interior Gale Norton is going to resign her post. With close ties to the logging and mining industries, Norton has been the bane of nearly every environmentalist's existence. She has also been one of the Administration's key proponents for drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

Of course it will be interesting to see who Bush chooses as a replacement, but given his position of weakness, it is hard to imagine anyone worse.

UPDATE: Read Norton's resignation letter here.

Mr. President, this department has climbed the mountaintop in terms of achieving the goals we set out to accomplish.

Pity she didn't mention the part about leveling the mountaintop once they got there...

In advance of Bush's appearance at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) today, the Secretary of Energy scrambled to save face by restoring $5 million to their budget.

As you may have heard, President Bush's budget last year resulted in a $28 million cut in funding for NREL. As a result, more than 30 researchers were promptly let go within a week of the President's brash State of the Union address in which he declared America addicted to oil and in need to technological advances. Oops.

So five million of the $28 million was quickly restored to rehire those employees. But it's clear that the President's budget still falls well short of his rhetoric.

I know, I know, the anticipation is eating you alive. Will the President say "nuclear" or "nucular"? Will he weaken the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act? Who's coming off the endangered species list--the Grizzly Bear or the Northwest Wild Salmon? So many choices...and only two hours to drone on.

In all seriousness, the early reports are that the President will most likely talk about energy issues. After five years, we could all write his paragraph on energy, so there isn't going to be any big announcement. But the danger lies in how his allies will try to capitalize on it.

Here's an excerpt from a story in Congress Daily--a trade rag here in D.C.:

Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue also urged Bush to talk about "the hypocrisy in our energy policy and our energy rhetoric." He said the Chamber is considering taking out ads in the weeks after the speech to highlight legislators who have criticized energy companies for not increasing production capacity while they have blocked access to domestic energy sources. "Here's what they're saying: Build more refineries, get more domestic oil and gas," Donohue said. "And right down the hall, the same people in a different room were saying, you can't build refineries here and you can't drill on the continent shelf, you can't drill in the Rockies, you can't drill in Alaska."