Washington » Hundreds of billions in taxpayer money has flowed to troubled banks and automakers. Oil and gas leases have been pulled back. Troops are shifting from one war zone to another. Torture is barred.

President Barack Obama has made bold strokes in his first 100 days to chart a new course for the nation's foreign policy and to attempt to reverse the troubling recession.

While economic woes have dominated the first months of his term, the new president has continued to set an ambitious agenda, promising to tackle such daunting challenges as global warming, health care and immigration.

Closer to home, Obama's administration has earned rave reviews from environmental groups and boos from industry for canceling a controversial sale of oil and gas leases near national parks and for slowing down a rush to develop oil shale.

In all, Obama's first few months in the White House have fired up Republican criticism -- especially among Utah's representatives in Congress -- about an enormous shift toward expanding government and deepening deficits. But Democrats, disturbed with the previous eight years under President George W. Bush, have had their optimism refreshed.

The transition to an Obama White House has been as stark as it has been intense, touching a broad variety of global issues, as well as ones that directly affect Utah and the West.

Energy

The Obama administration moved swiftly to undo a sale of 77 leases for oil and gas exploration for federal lands in Utah, including several thousand acres near national parks. The action provoked instant questions of whether Obama's White House is anti-drilling or whether he would close off exploration on public lands.

Obama, in response to a question by The Salt Lake Tribune , said the Bush administration "heavily tilted towards" opening up lands for commercial interests and was less concerned with environmental issues.

"I think it is entirely appropriate for this administration to take a step back, push the pause button and review what's been with regard to leases on federal lands," Obama said.

Obama's Interior Department also pulled back on regulations issued for oil shale production on public lands and launched a new comment period to gauge input on the issue. The move didn't sit well with several companies in Utah attempting to harvest synthetic oil from sedimentary rock in the Uinta Basin. Environmentalists, though, cheered the shift.

Public lands

Obama signed a major land and water conservation package into law in late March, a combination of 170 separate congressional proposals that creates 2 million acres of wilderness.

The package included the Washington County lands bill, backed by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, that makes 256,000 acres off-limits to development or energy exploration. It also allowed the government to sell up to 9,000 acres of non-sensitive lands around cities for future growth. The bill is seen as a model for future wilderness legislation throughout Utah.

Despite attempts by the Bush administration, concealed weapons are still prohibited in National Parks. Obama and new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have decided not to challenge a court ruling against a Bush administration rule favoring guns in parks.

Health care

The president has waded carefully into the treacherous political waters of health care reform by pushing for bipartisan action and leaving the details up to Congress. In his budget proposal, Obama included what he calls a $600 million "down payment" for the reform, which will seek to reduce costs and insure all Americans. But for it all to work, he will need to obtain concessions from insurance companies, drug makers and doctor groups, some of the most powerful lobbies in Washington.

Both of Utah's senators -- Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett -- are working on proposals that would be debated in the months to come.

One of the first bills Obama signed into law was a $31 billion reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program. While Hatch helped create the CHIP program 10 years ago, he steadfastly opposed this bill because he felt it insured too many kids from middle-class families.

Obama also removed Bush-era rules blocking federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a change for which Hatch has been one of the leading Republican advocates.

New Utah seat

Congress quickly pressed forward on legislation Obama supports that would hand Utah a fourth U.S. House seat while also ending a 200-year battle by the District of Columbia to have a full-voting member for the first time in the capital's history.

But the bill, which passed the Senate handily, has been held up in the House since February as Republicans threaten to force the district to give up strict gun regulations in exchange for the House seat. Obama, who was co-sponsor of the bill when he served in the Senate, backs the move but hasn't made any overt effort to get it passed.

In and out of power

Utah, which counted several residents as top officials during the Bush years, has found only one native son appointed to a key position in the Obama ranks: Larry EchoHawk, a Brigham Young University law professor tapped to head up Interior's Indian Affairs section.

Utahns lost out on any Cabinet spots, and former key Bush appointees have largely headed back to their home state. A major exception was Charlie Johnson, who continued to serve as acting secretary of Health and Human Services until Tuesday. Obama's first pick for HHS secretary to replace Utahn Mike Leavitt, Tom Daschle, withdrew his name after it came to light that he failed to pay taxes on a driver and money he made on speeches. The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Obama's second pick, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

So far, Obama also has yet to name a new U.S. Attorney for Utah, leaving former GOP congressional aide Brett Tolman in the spot. Several Democrats have lobbied Matheson for the job, pumping up the lone Utah Democrat in Congress as a go-to liaison.

In another big change from the Bush White House, Obama or top aides have met with Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker several times, and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has met with the president as well.

Utah Sens. Bennett and Hatch have been critical of several Obama moves, but both have scored invites to the White House; Hatch got a face-to-face sit down with the president, while Bennett had a spot on the stage during the signing of a lands bill. And both senators attended the Obama health care summit.

New spending proposals

All five federal lawmakers from Utah, including Matheson, voted against Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, generally saying it is too large and creates too much debt. The president has repeatedly said the nation needs to invest now in a revised health care system, energy independence and an improved education system to put itself on sound economic footing for the future.

The state's four Republicans had similar spending concerns when they stood in opposition to the $787 billion economic stimulus plan that is now sending federal money to dozens of programs with the hope of creating jobs quickly. They wanted more money for business tax cuts. Matheson did support the stimulus.

tburr@sltrib.com, mcanham@sltrib.com