Interior Secretary nominee Dirk Kempthorne, governor of Idaho, came out against an administration plan to sell Bureau of Land Management land to help balance the budget during his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday.

The administration planned to sell $1 billion in Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land, but a House budget committee rejected the idea Thursday.

Opposition from Kempthorne is yet another blow to a plan that has drawn bipartisan fire and has opponents declaring it dead on arrival.

"Senator, if [the land sale] is specifically and strictly for deficit reduction, I do not support that," Kempthorne said during his confirmation hearing. "That would be my position. That would be what I would advocate."

In its budget presentation in February, the Bush administration proposed selling $260 million of Bureau of Land Management land over five years with 70 percent of the proceeds dedicated to help balance the budget.

Likewise, the Forest Service would sell an estimated 175,000 acres of federal forestland to raise $800 million for a program to help fund rural schools that is now funded by taxpayers. Utah received $2 million from the program last year, but most of the money goes to northwestern logging communities.

Interior Department spokesman John Wright said he cannot speak for Kempthorne, but the administration's budget plan for BLM has not changed. "We support the president's budget," he said.

However, prospects for both proposals are now bleak. On Thursday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment did not include either of the administration's proposals in its budget bill.

"It's not going to happen in Congress," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "I think the administration has already read the tea leaves here on the Hill. It's a [proposal] that isn't going to happen and there's no reason for them to continue pushing it."

Dave Alberswerth, a public lands specialist with the Wilderness Society, said Kempthorne's statements, which contradict the administration's position, is a "hopeful sign."

"I think it certainly is a recognition of the political reality here that these proposals to start selling off our public land and national forests to allegedly reduce the deficit or fund the operations of other programs is just simply not something the American people support," Alberswerth said.

BLM land sales in Utah have been rare and generally very small. In the draft of the BLM's management plan for the Price area, the agency identified dozens of parcels that could be disposed of by the agency, though the number of acres is unclear.

Kempthorne, current governor and former senator from Idaho, has been nominated to replace former secretary, Gale Norton, who left the post in March.

Kempthorne was pressed by Republicans on Thursday to take action to help reduce the high price of gasoline by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, accelerating oil and gas drilling permits in the Rocky Mountain West, and tapping the potential 800 billion barrels of oil estimated trapped inside oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

"You're going to be the proprietor of one of the most valuable commodities in the world" if oil shale proves workable, said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Kempthorne said he understood the importance of domestic energy production.

"This nation needs to be able to produce its energy supply to the extent that we continue to lessen foreign dependence," he said. "This is an issue of economic security as well as national security."

However, Kempthorne was cautioned against excessive coastal drilling - an issue that could delay his confirmation.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has said previously that he may block Kempthorne's confirmation unless he is confident that he will not seek to open the eastern coast of Florida to drilling.

Nelson's spokesman, Bryan Gulley, said Thursday that Nelson has not decided whether to put a hold on the nomination and won't make a decision until after the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has voted to send Kempthorne to a Senate vote.

Domenici said he plans to have a vote in the committee on Wednesday.

Land sell-off history

* Feb. 6 Ð President Bush's budget includes provisions to sell $1 billion in Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land over five years to help balance the budget and fund rural schools.

Feb. 10 Ð Forest Service publishes initial list of eligible lands; no list of BLM lands has been published.

Feb. 28 Ð Forest Service begins taking public comments on the proposed lands. Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., express strong opposition to the land sales.

March 29 Ð Forest Service comment period extended. According to Agriculture Department officials, the comments had been largely negative.

May 4 Ð Interior Secretary nominee Dirk Kempthorne expresses opposition to the sale of federal lands for deficit reduction. House appropriations subcommittee does not include either BLM or Forest Service program in their budget bill.