Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Interior secretary nominee Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne failed to reach any agreement on leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico during a nearly one-hour meeting Wednesday, a Nelson spokesman said.

Nelson was seeking some assurance that Kempthorne, if confirmed by the Senate, would not seek to open the gas-rich Lease Sale 181 area in the eastern Gulf to additional oil and gas leasing, a move that he believes would threaten the beaches of Florida. “Kempthorne really made no commitments of any type,” said Nelson spokesman Bryan Gulley.

He noted that Nelson has decided to wait until after the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s confirmation hearing, which is scheduled for Thursday, to decide whether he will place a hold on Kempthorne’s nomination. A hold would prevent the nomination from going to the Senate floor for a vote. The Senate would have to come up with 60 votes to overcome the hold.

Sen. Mel Martinez, the junior senator from Florida and a member of the Senate energy panel, is expected to press Kempthorne about his views on drilling in the eastern Gulf at Thursday’s hearing.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) already has put a hold on Kempthorne’s nomination, as well as the nominations of other administration appointees who would influence the federal government’s energy and offshore production policies.

After the Bush administration last week requested additional funding for hurricane protection along the Gulf Coast, Landrieu removed her confirmation holds on “most of the presidential political appointments that I placed three weeks ago,” except for Kempthorne and other energy-related appointees. “Those remaining holds will be lifted when the administration takes a stand in favor of offshore revenue sharing,” allowing coastal states that permit drilling off their shores to keep a greater share of the royalties from offshore production (see Daily GPI, May 2).

Landrieu in early April placed a series of holds on Bush nonmilitary and nonjudicial appointees “until ‘significant progress’ was made securing White House commitments to levee protection and coastal restoration.”

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