Lanky Livingston
Guest
Fantastic news...although Obama and co have already said they are going to appeal.
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Obama ban on deepwater drilling overturned
Judge sides with industry, which opposed six-month moratorium
NEW ORLEANS - A U.S. judge Tuesday ruled against the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill. The White House, which had hoped the ban would provide time to ensure other wells are operating safely, immediately said it planned to appeal.
The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by drilling companies to reverse the ban imposed by the Department of Interior, which halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.
A federal judge in Louisiana granted the drillers' request for a preliminary restraining order that would prevent the ban from taking effect.
District Judge Martin Feldman said the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning and that the moratorium seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.
During a two-hour hearing Monday, plaintiffs' attorney Carl Rosenblum had argued that the suspension could prove more economically devastating than the spill itself. "This is an unprecedented industrywide shutdown. Never before has the government done this," Rosenblum said.
Earlier Tuesday, the owner of the rig that exploded, causing the spill, criticized the moratorium.
"There are things the administration could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit," Transocean Ltd. President Steven Newman told reporters on the sidelines of the World National Oil Companies Congress in London.
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Click link for the rest of the article.
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Obama ban on deepwater drilling overturned
Judge sides with industry, which opposed six-month moratorium
NEW ORLEANS - A U.S. judge Tuesday ruled against the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill. The White House, which had hoped the ban would provide time to ensure other wells are operating safely, immediately said it planned to appeal.
The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by drilling companies to reverse the ban imposed by the Department of Interior, which halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.
A federal judge in Louisiana granted the drillers' request for a preliminary restraining order that would prevent the ban from taking effect.
District Judge Martin Feldman said the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning and that the moratorium seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.
During a two-hour hearing Monday, plaintiffs' attorney Carl Rosenblum had argued that the suspension could prove more economically devastating than the spill itself. "This is an unprecedented industrywide shutdown. Never before has the government done this," Rosenblum said.
Earlier Tuesday, the owner of the rig that exploded, causing the spill, criticized the moratorium.
"There are things the administration could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit," Transocean Ltd. President Steven Newman told reporters on the sidelines of the World National Oil Companies Congress in London.
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Click link for the rest of the article.