Deepwater drilling permits must move forward, judge rules
A federal judge in New Orleans has ordered the Interior Department to move forward with five drilling applications for the Gulf of Mexico that have been under review for four to nine months.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who overruled the Obama administration's first deep-water drilling moratorium last year, said Interior's stance that there was no strict time limit to the review process for permit applications "would produce autocratic discretion at best."
"Perhaps it is reasonable for permit applicants to wait more than two weeks in a necessarily more
closely regulated environment," Feldman wrote, in a reversal of his previous decision on a case brought by ENSCO Offshore Co. and other oil-rig service businesses. "Delays of four months and more in the permitting process, however, are unreasonable, unacceptable, and unjustified by the evidence before the Court."
Feldman noted that before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the gulf and killed 11 men, permits were approved in about two weeks. "Beyond dispute is that before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, permit applications were resolved in some two weeks. Also clear is that the permit applications at issue here have experienced delays of four months, if not more," he wrote
The plaintiff, ENSCO, has five deep-water permits pending with the Interior Department and asked the court to require the department to act within a 30-day time frame set by federal regulations in 1978. Feldman agreed.
A month after the BP spill began, President Obama said that a congressionally mandated 30-day time limit to decide on completed permit applications contributed to a rush to allow drilling in the gulf without adequate review.
"That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review," Obama said during a May 27 news conference. "The result is, they are continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public's. So Congress needs to address these issues as soon as possible, and my administration will work with them to do so."
The new agency, Feldman wrote, "has taken over management from a formerly crumbling and disreputable agency; the leaking culprit well has been contained; the revised regulations are no longer new; and the threat of rigs leaving the Gulf becomes more forceful each day. The permitting backlog becomes increasingly inexcusable."
Related:
Some deep-water gulf drilling allowed to resume
Justice Department calls for more generosity from oil spil victims fund
-- Geoffrey Mohan
Photo: The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns in the Gulf of Mexico last April. Credit: U.S. Coast Guard
I agree with David and Toni, although I understand the concerns raised by the judge. It would be interesting to see more closely how the review process is put to work... The track record of this industry is terrible, to use an euphemism, as shown by ProPublica's The Spill. Spilling Over also examines in depth the impact on the local community, which is difficult to quantify from an economic standpoint: http://vimeo.com/17389903
Posted by: Luca Semprni | February 22, 2011 at 12:00 PM
...That's what they said when they drilled the BP Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico which exploded last year pouring millions of gallons of oil and chemicals into the sea taking months before it could be repaired. Why would anyone believe another oil-company or federal regulatory agency?
Its been a year since the BP deep water explosion poisoned America's beautiful Gulf of Mexico and we are still getting huge amounts of oil and tar balls on our beaches today with no end in sight. Anyone who has ever enjoyed the beautiful white sugar sand and clear aqua water so pure you can see the ocean bottom of the Florida Gulf Coast will be saddened when they see how murky the water is now since the BP oil spill.
The local seafood and tourism industry has been devistated because people are afraid to eat the local seafood after millions of gallons of oil and Halliburton chemicals were dumped into the sea.
We can not allow oil drilling so DEEP in the ocean it cant be repaired. We cant believe a corrupt big oil corp. $ driven government who refuses to regulate this dangerous deep water drilling practice.
I am a resident of the Florida Gulf Coast praying we learn from the BP tragedy, our ocean and sea life depend on it.
Posted by: toni | February 21, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Why is it you people won't learn a lesson?
When it will happen again and again, "oil spill will occur, where?"
Especially when there is an energy that will replace all CO2 emitters. Including to STOP all oil drilling in waters all around this earth.
How long does it take before you learn?
When we asked you for a little help you ignore us. And it only means your waters will become more polluted only in time. But when you will find out you could have helped.
Go ahead and sit on your brains for a little while or you can decide if you want to support with a little pocket change.
David Chura
research investigator,
Field of,
CMA energy (since 1980)
306 398 2379
cma.energy (@) gmail . com
Posted by: David Chura | February 18, 2011 at 01:17 PM
An oil industry group said today that it had in place an oil spill containment system suitable for a Deepwater Horizon-sized blowout. BOEMRE, the federal regulatory agency, is evaluating their claim. Even so, whether new drilling will be allowed to go forward before the recommendations of the Presidential Oil Spill Commission have been adopted remains to be seen.
Posted by: David Pettit | February 17, 2011 at 05:59 PM