Could the end of the 6-month moratorium be near?

The effect of the possible six-month blanket moratorium on deepwater drilling has been compared to dominoes.

“The dominoes are falling as we speak,” said plaintiff attorney Carl Rosenblum in court Monday before District Judge Martin Feldman. “An ecosystem of businesses is being harmed every day, and once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it can’t be put back.”

Rosenblum said once deepwater drilling is shut down, businesses will fall like a series of dominoes.

But the moratorium issue isn’t a game, and it isn’t about toothpaste being put back into the tube. It’s about the estimated tens of thousands of people that will be out of jobs if the six-month blanket moratorium stands, and companies that supply offshore oil rigs are concerned that it will do more harm than good.

Rosenblum explained Louisiana’s economic blow from the moratorium would prove to be more damaging than the oil spill itself.

“This is going to just devastate us, people that were just holding on are going to be sunk. Four to eight jobs will be affected by every job that’s lost, and that will ripple through the entire economy in Lousiana,” said Mike Spears, currently running for U.S. Senate, at an anti-moratorium rally in Houma over the weekend.

“We are not here for a breach of contract issue,” Rosenblum said on Monday.

The lawsuit filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services claims that the government inflicted the moratorium without notifying the state and without factual proof that deepwater drilling was a threat, and therefore is in violation of Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OSCLA) and Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

A brief drafted by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office states, “Inasmuch as the State of Louisiana was completely ignored by defendants in the establishment of this moratorium for alleged safety reasons, the question arises whether that failure renders Defendants’ action invalid.”

In court, the plaintiff claimed that there was no text in any documents received that supports the moratorium as an Emergency Suspension Provision, and 27 out of the 29 rigs inspected after the spill met all safety regulations – the other two with only minor problems.

“There was no finding of systemic risk,” said John F. Cooney on behalf of the plaintiff, and therefore each oil rig should be judged on a case-by-case basis.

The defense argued factual data can be found in the administration record, not in the safety report, and that the continuation of drilling is still a high-risk situation if there is another explosion.

Justice Department attorney Guillermo Montero explained that the moratorium is about raising the bar in regard to safety precautions. He said that the 29 rigs inspected were done so by the same standards that the Deepwater Horizon rig was inspected, and the Gulf cannot afford another mistake of that caliber

“The Deepwater Horizon blowout was a game-changer,” Montero said.

“We want to be as safe as we all thought it was before April 20,” added Brian Collins, another defense lawyer.

Montero continued that the suspension might be lifted earlier than six months, once the thorough investigation of equipment, well integrity and well control has been completed in accordance to the 22 new safety recommendations outlined in the government’s executive summary of the safety regulations document. These recommendations for oil rigs were put in place in case of another disaster.

“This way there won’t be 62 days and counting before it’s fixed,” Montero said.

But while the Obama administration is looking into the future, Louisiana is fixed on the here and now as companies like Hornbeck watch their rigs sit idly in the midst of an economic disaster.

“A moratorium on deepwater drilling will have a severe impact on the economy of the State of Louisiana in both short term and long term, which has been completely ignored in Defendants’ decision-making process,” stated Jindal’s brief.

After fielding two hours of argument, Judge Feldman stated that the decision of whether or not to overturn the blanket moratorium would be made by noon today at the very latest.