David Vitter Blocks Obama NOAA Nominee Over Offshore Drilling Halt

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration won't be able to fill a key science position until it testifies about a decision to block areas of the eastern Gulf and Atlantic seaboard from new oil and gas drilling, a Republican senator said Thursday.

Sen. David Vitter, R- La., said in a letter to President Barack Obama that he was putting a "hold" on the nomination of Dr. Scott Doney for chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He first wants answers to the tough new policy on offshore drilling announced earlier this month.

Under Senate rules, a single senator can prevent a nominee from getting a vote on the Senate floor. It takes 60 vote to override such "holds."

Vitter said he wants Carol Browner, Obama's chief energy and climate change adviser, and Steve Black, counselor to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, to testify under oath before the Senate Small Business Committee on a November report by the Interior Department's inspector general.

That report concluded that the White House edited a drilling safety report in a way that made it appear that scientists and experts supported the administration's six-month ban on new deep-water drilling.

"Louisianians are distraught by your administration's disregard for scientific integrity, the health of the U.S. economy and domestic energy production," Vitter told Obama in the letter.

Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said Vitter was "posturing."

"No amount of political pressure is going to weaken our commitment to delivering strong oversight, strong safety standards and clear rules of the road for offshore oil and gas production," Barkoff said. Interior says the inspector general's report was an editing mistake and not an issue of wrongdoing or scientific integrity.

Vitter said he also wanted a response to a letter he sent to Salazar last month about what he a de facto drilling moratorium.

Louisiana's Democratic senator, Mary Landrieu, also held up a confirmation vote for White House budget chief Jacob Lew for several months to protest the administration's offshore drilling policies imposed after last summer's BP oil spill in the Gulf.

The administration's drilling announcement reversed a March plan that would have authorized officials to explore the potential for drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the northern waters of Alaska.

Obama nominated Doney in August to be NOAA's top scientist. He is currently a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Comments

[jacobomorales]

08:04 AM on 12/13/2010

Southern white trash,,,if this is a southern leader can you imagine what his constituency must be like?

[StephenBP]

09:12 PM on 12/11/2010

Has someone re-touched Vitter's photo? Or is he really starting to look that porcine?

[mothergrace]

12:03 AM on 12/11/2010

The Senate has become nothing but a burden on the process. The rules need to be revamped. One person should not have the ability to do this.

[phill273]

12:02 AM on 12/13/2010

One person absolutely should. Our whole system of government is about preventing the majority from ruling over the minority.

[mothergrace]

12:37 PM on 12/13/2010

Our country is supposed to be majority rules.

If we wanted one person to have this much power we would have crowned George Washington.

[ninthraphael]

03:59 PM on 12/10/2010

i love it when vitter started moral-ising!!!!!

[Quitcherbichin]

03:03 PM on 12/10/2010

Way to go Dave! The legislators from the energy producing states should all band together and block every appointment until B O gets it. We must be allowed to find and safelyh produce energy wherever it may be. I would love to see the tree huggers try to burn a Caribou, Polar Bear, or Seal for fuel.

Those states who don't allow energy exploration within their borders, or off of their coasts, should not be allowed to consume energy from those states who do. I suggest that all of the energy producing states band together until the rest of the states say "uncle"...or freeze in the dark...whichever comes first.

[hang319]

04:01 PM on 12/10/2010

Wow - a Vitter fan. Are you aware he's a whoremonger?

[mothergrace]

12:02 AM on 12/11/2010

Is that what you say to the families that make their living fishing or through tourism?

It isn't just the environment at risk, although it should be enough that we don't chit our nest and live in filth, it is also the lives and livelihoods of others.

Why don't you try to eat oil?

[Quitcherbichin]

02:10 PM on 12/13/2010

Same reason you don't try to run your car on water cupcake.

[hrc04]

01:50 PM on 12/10/2010

Of course Vitter wants to continue drilling.

[poliguy70130]

12:43 PM on 12/10/2010

Vitter has consistently used these holds to jam up the President's appointment of key officials. Long before the spill ever happened, Vitter placed holds, mostly secret, on numerous potential appointees for no reason at all. Since the day President Obama was sworn in, Vitter's every action has sought to frustrate/hinder the President's administration. The profound depth of Vitter's ill feelings toward the President seem to permeate his every action, and runs much deaper than the regular republican/democrat disagreements.

[Cacey]

12:32 PM on 12/10/2010

The only offshore drilling Vitter could care about is when he's on a cabin cruiser with his prostitute.

[ConjureMan]

12:31 PM on 12/10/2010

Get him a hooker and he'll vote for anything. Paging Stormy Daniels!

[Kiffanik]

12:02 PM on 12/10/2010

Congress really is filled with a bunch of children. They have no concept of doing what's right, the right way, because it's right. It's all about what are you going to give me? I thought you were supposed to grow out of that as you mature. I'm ok with having disagreements about the right way of doing things, but this constant pettiness that obviously has no motivation beyond a desire to get it's own way has become tiresome and dangerous.

[joedaplumper]

12:39 PM on 12/10/2010

We are talking about "Diaper Dave" here.

[SolarArray]

11:52 AM on 12/10/2010

The people need adults to help to keep the country running, not these juveniles.

[oilfield]

03:44 PM on 12/10/2010

can you burn the sun your car?

[hang319]

04:03 PM on 12/10/2010

huh?

[sheila]

02:18 PM on 12/12/2010

can you burn the sun anywhere? we are all excited to hear about how you burn the sun...

Oh, and plenty of people are setting up to put solar panels on their rooftops to charge the batteries for their electric cars, if you consider that "burning the sun in your car."

sorry, but we are all moving forward. join us or get out of the way.

[Miketou]

11:44 AM on 12/10/2010

This guy has the morals of an alley cat and is unfit for public office. Unfortunately the citizens of Louisiana seem to adore him and voted to keep this piece work in office. They get what they deserve.

[BebeLush]

12:49 PM on 12/10/2010

I didn't vote for him. And he thoroughly disgusts me.

[Eric Shun]

01:07 PM on 12/10/2010

I agree with you on Vitter, but the same can be said for some people on the the other side too. How did Rangel keep getting elected?

[kareemachan]

11:43 AM on 12/10/2010

Not surprised to see that the Republicans still can only think in terms of obstruction.

HEY YOU TP/NOPers - where's the jobs you promised?

[Falafel]

11:42 AM on 12/10/2010

The photo of Vitter in the lifeguard vest was probably taken when he was role playing with his, um, hired lady companions.

[cbelk]

05:12 PM on 12/10/2010

Thats not a life vest he just has his diaper on upside down.

[FalstaffsMind]

11:08 AM on 12/10/2010

What does a Louisiana Senator have to say about what happens off Florida and the rest of the Eastern Seaboard? There are no restrictions off his state.