Published: May 17, 2006

Rebecca Watson, former assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the U.S. Department of the Interior, will lecture on "Current Administration Energy Policies" at Chautauqua Park in Boulder on Monday, May 22.

Her talk begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Chautauqua Community House and is part of the summer lecture series of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Admission is $3 for the general public, $1 for Chautauqua members.

While at the Department of the Interior, Watson was involved in setting policy and providing oversight to the Bureau of Land Management, Minerals Management Service and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Together, the three bureaus have responsibility for the production of about 35 percent of the nation's domestic oil, natural gas and coal. She left the department in October 2005 and is now an attorney at the Hogan & Hartson law firm in Denver.

The next event in the lecture series, a May 31 talk by Roger G. Kennedy, the former director of the National Park Service, has been canceled due to illness.

For more information on the summer lecture series visit the CU-Boulder Center of the American West's Web site at or call (303) 492-4879.