Vitter talks domestic energy strategy at town hall

U.S. Sen. David Vitter said he would soon introduce a “broad-based energy bill” geared at increasing the United States’ production of its domestic energy resources.

“We’re the only energy-rich country that takes 95 percent of all of our domestic energy resources and puts them out of bounds, and that’s what Congress and the president have done,” the Republican senator said. “It is crazy, and we need to start changing that policy, and this bill that I’m the prime author of and have a lot of support, co-authors, would do that. We’re going to introduce it very soon. We’re going to push it.”

Vitter said he expects the bill to garner substantial national attention, in part because of rising gasoline prices and unrest in the Middle East. He didn’t celebrate the rise in prices, but he pointed out the silver lining that it could facilitate increased scrutiny on the president’s energy policies.

“That’s a shame, but the bad news and the good news put together is we are going to be getting their attention for that reason pretty darn soon.”

Vitter also addressed the hold he put on President Barack Obama’s appointment of Dan Ashe. The president appointed Ashe to head the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service, and Vitter said he will not remove the hold until the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement issues 15 deepwater exploration permits.

“What I’ll continue to tell this administration is pretty direct and pretty simple: you’re not going to fill that job until we fill a whole lot of LA jobs first, reopening energy production in the Gulf,” said Vitter, who added that restoring Gulf energy production is his top priority.

The Senate could still approve Ashe’s appointment. Vitter has also placed a hold on the administration’s appointment of a chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Since the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and leaked approximately 150 million gallons of oil on April 20 of last year, federal regulators have yet to grant a single deepwater exploration permit.

Vitter discussed his strategy before he fielded about 20 questions from the public during a town hall meeting Thursday at the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux. The meeting lasted longer than an hour, and the senator answered unedited questions.

One of the subjects Vitter was asked about was Kenneth Feinberg, the head of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and administrator of BP’s $20 billion claim fund. Vitter, who said he sent a letter to Feinberg and BP earlier on Thursday, said there is a blatant conflict of interest in the way Feinberg’s salary is handled.

“BP pays [Feinberg] and his firm $850,000 a month, and that’s subject to negotiation every few months at the same time as he’s deciding claims against BP. Am I missing something, or is that a HUGE conflict?

“If you’re trying to set up a system and create bias in favor of BP, that’s what you would do.”

His letter, which was printed online by thehill.com, blasts the salary negotiations.

“I think it is a clear and profound conflict of interest for Mr. Feinberg to be regularly negotiating his compensation with BP at the same time as he is deciding BP’s liability to Louisiana claimants and others,” the letter reads. “This conflict is completely unacceptable.”

Vitter suggested an independent arbitrator should set Feinberg’s salary.

Regarding the national budget, which the House is examining for potential expenditure cuts, Vitter said he doesn’t expect it to be passed by tomorrow’s deadline. Instead, he said he foresees the Democratic-majority Senate and House to agree on an extension.

“What I think would be reasonable, is I think we will pass a short-term extension by next Thursday – two weeks, a month, something like that,” Vitter said. “I think that extension has to have meaningful cuts in it.

“What I would like is for it to have, if it’s a two-week extension, two weeks worth of the House budget cuts. So if that’s $100 billion per year, I think it should have about $6 billion of cuts for two weeks.”

Vitter said he would like to see $100 billion cut over the year.