Lummis, Lamborn Blast "Rushed' Job on Drilling Moratorium Uncovered in IG Report

Statement

Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) released the following statement on the Department of the Interior (DOI) Inspector General report regarding changes made to DOI's 30-Day Safety Report that recommended a drilling moratorium. This report comes after Lummis, Lamborn and other Natural Resources Committee Republicans called for an Inspector General investigation into who authored misleading language in the Safety Report claiming the moratorium was peer-reviewed.

"This report is troubling at best. It calls into question the accuracy and scientific basis of every decision the Department of Interior (DOI) has made in recent years regarding domestic energy. The American people deserve a full accounting of how the DOI is operating." -- Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)

"The report paints a very troubling picture of how policy is made in the Obama White House. Among the findings, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's staff blamed a "rushed editing" job for a report that with the misleading claim that the decision to impose the devastating moratorium on deep-water drilling was peer-reviewed.

"The report finds that unnamed White House staffers from the office of Carol Browner, a political appointee in charge of the office of Energy and Climate, were making changes to the document at 2 am. A report of that magnitude, justifying a moratorium that destroyed an estimated 46,000 jobs, should have been done more deliberatively and with greater input and consensus from outside experts.

"What we are left to determine is whether the White House put out a misleading report because staffers were tired and in a hurry, or because an unnamed staffer or official intentionally meant to mislead Congress and the American people on independent support for the moratorium. Either conclusion is troubling.

"I am calling on Ms. Browner to clear up this case and hold her staff accountable for their actions. Every person who lost their job in the Gulf has the right to know who made final edits to the report that made it appear the moratorium was more than just the political decision we now know it is." -- Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05)
Lamborn and Lummis sit on the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on the House Natural Resources Committee.

Source