Gulf oil spill: Drilling moratorium rejected again

A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Obama administration’s request to keep a six-month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling, saying the government failed to show it would suffer  “irreparable harm” if work resumes on the approved well sites in the Gulf of Mexico.

The decision, issued shortly after the three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a crowded New Orleans courtroom, was a blow to the administration’s plan to cease new drilling operations in waters deeper than 500 feet while investigators probe the cause of the devastating April 20 oil rig explosion and massive spill.

Attorneys for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had urged the appeals court panel to leave the drilling ban in effect while emergency crews work to contain the oil still gushing out of the damaged wellhead at the rate of up to 60,000 barrels a day.

Eleven people were killed when Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, setting off the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

One of the three judges dissented, saying he would have granted the government’s request for a stay on the lower court's order. The panel ruled unanimously, however, in calling for an expedited hearing on the merits of the government need for a drilling halt in the wake of the BP spill disaster. That hearing was set for late August.

U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman struck down the government moratorium on deep-water drilling on June 22, at the urging of drilling-support companies, which argued that the halt threatened devastating economic harm to the region. The companies, led by Hornbeck Offshore Services, argued that Feldman’s ruling was correct in deeming the administration action excessive and unsupported by facts.

As Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal sat in the front row of the crowded courtroom, the appeals court judges peppered the lawyers for both sides with questions that foreshadowed their 2-1 ruling against allowing the blanket moratorium.

The judges also questioned the likelihood of another spill occurring, one of the government’s main arguments for keeping the moratorium in place while implementing new safety measures on drilling operations.

-- Carol J. Williams and Nicole Santa Cruz

Comments

[MartyK]

Gasoline tanker trucks explode all the time, making a big mess and usually killing someone. Should we stop transporting gasoline in trucks? If your answer is "yes," tell us where your cave is, so we can come study you and your prehistoric people.
Airplanes crash and we don't stop all air traffic unless there is a damned good reason: like there appears to be a terrorist plot to blow up multiple airplanes and we don't know where the terrorists are.
This knee jerk impulse to stop ALL drilling in the Gulf is so juvenile! You don't just shut down an entire industry with a superb safety record because one idiot had an accident. If we were having multiple explosions and leaks, I could see it.

[Spinnaker]

Event occur and damage results, that does not mean it should result in the termination of all the activity. Stop the airlines, stop autos. Any damn fool who thinks we don't need the oil industry is on something.

[jerry wells]

I say to those of you who want to resume drilling in the gulf, then clean it up yourselfs.

[Paul Taylor Examiner]

The first decade of the 21st Century may be seen as the decade in which environmentalism peaked, and then failed from its own hubris and corruption. It has taken about a decade in a deluge of environmental proselytizing, marketing, hysterics and gratuitous lies to expose the greed and fear mongering of a movement that exists now as just another political special interest. Their shameful trade in scary eco-scenarios now falls on deaf ears in the public mind. Except for those for whom environmentalism is a practiced religion or commercial enterprise, eco-themes and incentives have been largely exhausted, and even caricatured in our popular culture.

[Marty Smallman]

Well let them fix up the mess themselves.

If it comes down to a business risk, then lets pull out all assistance and let the gulf states sort out their own mess.

[La. Native]

Drilling in deep water has been going on in the Gulf of Mexico for 30-plus years with a pretty outstanding safety record. For the vast majority of companies operating in the deep waters of the Gulf, it is in their own best interest to have a safe, smooth-running (and profitable) operation. It's abundantly clear that BP was being extremely reckless in its operations (a dead battery on its blowout preventer? seriously?) and, frankly, they shouldn't be allowed to drill ANYWHERE, as far as I'm concerned. And as far as the cleanup technology goes, that's a pointless argument. The whole idea of the safeguards of deepwater drilling is to never let such a blowout occur in the first place. Asking the industry to come up with foolproof cleanup technology before another well is drilled is like forcing all airlines to be grounded until they come up with a backup plan for when all the engines fail and the wings fall off the plane. There's a real simple plan for making deepwater drilling safe: Vigorously enforce the existing rules and regulations and cracking down hard (monetarily) on any and all violations. That will get all operators in the Gulf to drill safely and responsibly. See? That didn't take 6 months to figure out.

[Malificent]

Are they kidding? They couldn't find any potential harm from running a bunch of oil rigs, in THE GULF OF MEXICO? Umm, what if another one ruptures? The EPA the new improved MMS should demand that before operating, a well and rig are shown to be safe, which they have to this point not been doing. They have no suitable technology for cleaning up, how can these judges sleep at night? Drilling in deep water is A BAD IDEA, please bring in more scientists and make BP an adviser, they should not be in charge. Write the White House and other representatives and demand that they make oil companies have a plan before operating in the gulf. They will not have one, and will be solely responsible for not being able to drill.