New broke this afternoon regarding President Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling.
Deepwater Drilling Ban by Obama Lifted by U.S. Judge, Bloomberg Business Week.
Judge Martin Feldman wrote: “The blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger.”
API released the following statement:
“We welcome Judge Feldman’s decision to lift the moratorium on deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The administration acted appropriately in its immediate steps to inspect every rig in the Gulf following the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Those inspections were necessary to assure Americans that offshore operations were safe and subject to appropriate oversight.
“In addition, the oil and natural gas industry took immediate steps to review practices and equipment to ensure safety and environmental protection, through the formation of two industry-wide task forces. The task forces provided important insights to the Department of Interior during its earliest examination of Gulf operations.
“Those task forces, and two recently created ones, are actively working to find ways to improve the safety of offshore operations, subsea well control and oil spill response. They should prove invaluable to the independent commission established by the president to investigate the Deepwater Horizon incident. Their work, and the work of the commission, will help ensure that deepwater oil and natural gas exploration and production is the safest and cleanest in the world.
“The moratorium was an initial reaction to concerns about the safety of offshore oil and natural gas operations. However, an extended moratorium would have a tremendous impact on the nation’s energy security – and cause significant harm to the region of the country that was already suffering from the spill – without raising safety or improving industry procedures.
“With this ruling, our industry and its people can get back to work to provide Americans with the energy they need, and do it safely and without harming the environment.”
But, as Politico reports, Judge Feldman may have a conflict-of-interest in this case. The federal judge who overturned the White House’s offshore drilling ban Tuesday held stock in Transocean LTD, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig, as recently as 2008.
Regardless, this issue has left a permanent stain on the Administration of Barack Obama. And, in contrast to the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the subsequent damage to the image George Bush, this time the incompetency doesn’t rest with the Governor of Louisiana or the Mayor of New Orleans.
Elsewhere:
Former Senator George Allen of the American Freedom Energy Center said, “Seems to be a rational decision and good news for tens of thousands of Louisiana and Texas jobs and families.”
Gulf Coast Lawmakers Praise Stay of Drilling Moratorium
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Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who has criticized the ban, said the ruling ”recognizes that the president’s powers are certainly not unlimited and that this moratorium is wreaking havoc on jobs in Louisiana.”
