Idaho Governor Dick Kempthorne (R) was chosen by President Bush to be the next Secretary of the Interior, according to the Washington Post. Kempthorne will replace Gale Norton, a highly controversial Interior secretary who consistently sided with corporate interests over environmental concerns and became entwined in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Kempthorne is already being hailed as an equally controversial choice. He received over $200,000 from energy and natural resources companies during his Senate career and backs oil and gas industry wish list items like drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve and offshore drilling. Kempthorne also fought to “open national forests to logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling.”