Landrieu blamed the administration’s drilling ban — put in place as administration officials review new federal drilling standards in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico spill — for economically hurting the region more than the spill itself.

By Darren Goode and Sam Youngman at The Hill

EXCERPTS:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Thursday called Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) procedural hold on President Obama’s nominee for budget director sad and outrageous.

Landrieu is blocking Senate confirmation of his nomination until a post-election lame-duck session in order to keep pressure on the Obama administration to lift or relax a deepwater oil-and-gas drilling moratorium and to speed up shallow-water drilling permits that are not officially part of the ban.

She added, “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. 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.”

FULL STORY

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