Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) last week continued her procedural hold on the nomination of Jack Lew for the director of the Office of Management and Budget, despite pleas from the White House and congressional Democrats to remove it. Landrieu said she will block his nomination until the moratorium on deepwater oil and natural gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has been lifted or significantly modified.

At the same time, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) expressed supported for Landrieu’s stand on the moratorium. “I support the hold on Jack Lew until the administration understands the pain its moratorium is causing folks along the Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, sometimes holds are needed to get this administration to focus, much as my hold on FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] nominee Craig Fugate forced a resolution to the flood zone issue,” Vitter said.

In announcing her procedural hold, Landrieu said she believed Lew “lacked sufficient concern” for the economic challenges facing the Gulf Coast following the massive oil spill off the southern coast of Louisiana.

Despite being struck down in federal court several times, the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling — which initially went into effect in late May — remains in force (see NGI, Sept. 6). Although not officially subject to the ban, drilling in the Gulf shallow waters (500 feet or less) has been brought to a standstill as well.

Before the explosion aboard the BP plc-leased Deepwater Horizon rig and the imposition of the drilling ban, the Minerals Management Service, the predecessor to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM), approved an average of three to six shallow-water permits per week, or 12 to 24 permits on average per month, according to Landrieu. Since May the BOEM has only issued five shallow-water permits for new wells.

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