Interior head talks energy, conservation in Colo.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar outlined an expanded "all of the above" strategy for balancing conservation of public lands with increased domestic energy production.

"We see energy independence within our grasp," Salazar said in a speech to about 180 participants in a symposium at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado. The audience ranged from senior federal land managers to anti-coal activists to members of the CU student government.

Salazar was in Colorado for a campaign appearance with President Barack Obama in Golden, and then planned to swing through the state for an America's Great Outdoors stakeholder meeting on the Western Slope and to announce the creation of a national wildlife refuge on the east side of the San Luis Valley.

But in Boulder, Salazar's focus was on energy.The strategy he discussed in the speech — and elaborated on in interviews later — embraces oil and gas drilling, solar power, geo-thermal power and wind-power systems.