http://www.ogj.com/index/article-display/3677133685/articles/oil-gas-journal/general-interest-2/government/2010/09/landrieu-blocks_omb/QP129867/cmpid=EnlDailySeptember242010.html
Shameful politics as usual at work. DV
Sep 24, 2010
Nick Snow
OGJ Washington Editor
WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 24 — US Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) said on Sept. 23 that she would block Jack Lew’s nomination as White House Office and Management and Budget Director until the Obama administration’s deepwater drilling moratorium is lifted or significantly modified.
“Although Mr. Lew clearly possesses the expertise necessary to serve as one of the president’s most important economic advisors, I found that he lacked sufficient concern for the host of economic challenges confronting the Gulf Coast,” Landrieu wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). “The fact that the most acute of these economic challenges, the moratorium, results from a direct (and reversible) federal action only serves to harden my stance on Mr. Lew’s nomination.”
She said some economists have estimated that more than 46,000 jobs could be lost as a result of a 6-month stoppage of offshore drilling. The Obama Administration itself has estimated that as many as 12,000 workers could be laid off as a result of a ban on oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, she added.
“In repeated meetings and correspondence with Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management [Regulation, and Enforcement] Director Michael R. Bromwich, I have underscored how damaging this moratorium is to Louisiana, the Gulf Coast, and the nation. Unfortunately, I have seen no measurable progress,” she said.
“I cannot support further action on Mr. Lew’s nomination to be a key economic advisor to the president until I am convinced that the president and his administration understand the detrimental impacts that the actual and de facto moratoria continue to have on the Gulf Coast,” Landrieu told Reid.
Contact Nick Snow at nicks@pennwell.com.
Special thanks to Richard Charter