Link to Press Release
Washington, D.C. - Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, commented on the vote today in the Environment and Public Works Committee on the nomination of Rebecca Wodder to be Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior.
Her confirmation passed with all Republicans opposing the measure; it now awaits a vote in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
"As I have said repeatedly, I strongly oppose Rebecca Wodder's nomination to be Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Department of the Interior, and, although her nomination passed out of the EPW committee today along straight party lines, I hope it can be stopped in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee," Senator Inhofe said.
"The last thing our economy needs is another member of Obama's 'green team,' who actively works to shut down domestic energy development. We know about Ms. Wodder's disdain for natural gas due to her work as the CEO of the far-left environmental organization, American Rivers, and because of the many statements she has made in opposition to the practice of hydraulic fracturing, which is critical to natural gas development.
Particularly troubling is her claim that hydraulic fracturing 'has a nasty track record of creating a toxic chemical soup that pollutes groundwater and streams, threatening public health and wildlife'- a statement that she refused to retract in her nomination hearing before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee even though she conceded in questions for the record to me, 'I am not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water.'
"Today's vote on Ms. Wodder's nomination also comes just days after a report released by HIS Global Insight found that in 2010, the shale gas industry supported 600,000 jobs and this will grow to 870,000 in 2015 and over 1.6 million by 2035. It also found that it will reduce electricity costs by 10% nationwide, and savings from lower gas prices will add an annual average of $926 per year in disposable household income between 2012 and 2015. This report is welcome news, considering that President Obama openly admitted from the beginning that under his plan of a cap-and-trade system 'electricity prices would necessarily skyrocket' and Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said that '[s]omehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.'
"I hope that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee does the right thing and stops yet another 'green team' nominee from joining the ranks in President Obama's war on affordable energy."
