When Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took over a year ago, his department was reeling from scandal and plagued by criticism that it was too cozy with the oil and gas industry. Employees were found to be sharing cocaine and bedrooms with industry representatives – a symbol of just how close they had become under the Bush administration.

Last month, Salazar received a different kind of gift from the oil and gas industry: a tiny sliver of candy, meant to symbolize what it sees as a small portion of public lands where it can drill under mounting Interior regulations.

With the words “there's a new sheriff in town,” the Colorado rancher turned politician took the helm with a reform agenda. Like his boss President Barack Obama, though, Salazar has caught heat from both sides. Some say he's been too radical. Some say he hasn't been aggressive enough. Supporters say he has blazed a pragmatic trail across the nation's embattled public lands.

“I wouldn't say that Ken has done everything that I thought he should. Maybe he's made some decisions that I disagree with. But on balance, you've got to give the guy a ton of credit,” says Steve Torbit, Rocky Mountain Regional Director of the National Wildlife Federation.

When Salazar took office, he found himself facing the legacy of the Bush administration. He set about undoing many of the so-called midnight rules the departing administration had put in place. He appeared at the Minerals Management Service in Denver, pledging reform. The office, which handles billions of dollars' worth of oil and natural gas, was blasted by an Inspector General's report that found staffers had taken industry-funded trips, had sex with industry representatives and shared cocaine and marijuana with them.

Environmentalists scorned his decision to uphold the Bush administration's removal of the gray wolf in the northern Rockies from the Endangered Species List. They praised his efforts to rein in the oil and gas industry, though. Salazar scaled back an oil shale R&D plan in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. He suspended most of 77 controversial oil and gas leases in Utah, some of them within view of national parks and archeological resources.

Earlier this month, Salazar unveiled a slate of leasing reforms meant to better protect the environment. Those reforms include implementing more interdisciplinary reviews of specific leases, scaling back so-called categorical exclusions and emphasizing leasing in already-developed areas.

Many environmental and sportsmen's groups praised the changes as a tilt toward balance. Not surprisingly, industry representatives blasted them, and sent Salazar .07 pounds of fudge in response to his assessment of public lands as the “candy store of the oil and gas industry.” Oil and gas drilling occupies less than .07 percent of public lands in the West, they say.

“Interior Secretary Salazar has repeatedly stated that the Obama Administration is not “anti-oil and gas, yet when it comes to Interior's onshore natural gas and oil program, the record suggests otherwise,” said the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, the group that sent him the sliver of fudge.

Criticism hasn't come only from energy interests, though.

“If I had to assign a grade it would be ‘incomplete,' and if you force me to give a letter grade, it would be C-minus,” says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Ruch praises Salazar for settling a troubling Indian trust fund lawsuit left over from the Bush administration and repealing some of the eleventh-hour Bush rules, but he criticizes him for not doing enough to protect species like the wolf and grizzly, and for not taking stricter measures against oil and gas drilling.

“It really does feel very much like a third Bush term,” says Ruch.

He criticizes Salazar for not doing enough to protect department whistle blowers or increase transparency and says he worries that Salazar's focus on renewable energy could bring its own threats to public lands.

“You're going to have as many oil and gas rigs as Bush-Cheney, but they'll have windmills on top,” Ruch says.

Such attacks are unfair, says Steve Torbit, of the National Wildlife Federation.

“Ken's a Westerner. He's a pragmatist,” says Torbit. He praises Salazar's reforms as a model for other departments, like the Agriculture Department which oversees the Forest Service and Wildlife Services.

“There's actually balance now in the Department of Interior,” he says.

Write to David Frey via his Web site, www.davidfrey.me.