Senate panel OKs Kempthorne

WASHINGTON – A Senate committee Wednesday sent Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s nomination as interior secretary to the full Senate, although procedural delays by lawmakers may stall his final confirmation to the Cabinet.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Kempthorne’s nomination on a voice vote. No senator opposed Kempthorne, although Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., voted “present” to protest the Bush administration’s refusal to share a portion of offshore oil and gas royalties with Gulf Coast states.

The federal government does not share offshore energy royalties with states, but it does split royalties 50-50 with states for oil and gas development in the Rocky Mountain West.

Landrieu and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., have said they intend to place a hold on Kempthorne’s nomination once it is reported out of the committee. Holds are a privilege any senator can invoke to block a measure from coming to a floor vote.

Republican Senate leaders have said they will seek to override any holds on Kempthorne and bring his nomination to a floor vote before Memorial Day.

Nelson said he is opposed to an Interior Department proposal allowing oil and gas drilling off the Gulf of Mexico. Nelson and Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., say offshore drilling poses environmental risks that could threaten beaches crucial to the state’s tourism industry.

Kempthorne said last week he is eager to press President Bush’s expansion of oil and gas drilling offshore and on federal lands as an antidote to $3-a-gallon gasoline. He called it a “great responsibility” to manage public lands and waters that produce 30 percent of the nation’s domestic supply of energy.

Kempthorne, 54, would replace Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who resigned in March after five years leading a department that manages one-fifth of the nation’s land.

Kempthorne, replying to senators’ follow-up questions after last week’s confirmation hearing, pledged to abide by his predecessor’s offshore drilling plan for the Gulf of Mexico – despite the opposition of some senators.

He also likened the Endangered Species Act to a dysfunctional hospital.

“Primarily, ESA needs more follow-through to recover listed species,” he wrote. “We would never accept a health care system in which the ambulance delivers the patient, the emergency room takes their name and vital signs and then moves them to the waiting room” where they never see a doctor.