David Vitter Blocks Obama NOAA Nominee Over Offshore Drilling Halt

[unhappycamper]

David Vitter Blocks Obama NOAA Nominee Over Offshore Drilling Halt
JIM ABRAMS | 12/ 9/10 05:23 PM | AP

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.