Registered fishermen still waiting by the phone for BP
June 22, 2010
Helen LeBoeuf
June 24, 2010
After overseeing a two-hour court hearing on Monday at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans, Judge Martin Feldman shot down the Obama administration’s temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling early Tuesday – a ruling that has made his name echo across the country for calling the ban “invalid.”
In the ruling, Feldman states, “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.”
Feldman continued to explain that the defendants did not have proper reasoning for the blanket moratorium.
“On the record now before the Court, the defendants have failed to cogently reflect the decision to issue a blanket, generic, indeed punitive, moratorium with the facts developed during the 30-day review. The plaintiffs have established a likelihood of successfully showing that the Administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the moratorium.”
“Accordingly, the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction is granted. An Order consistent with this opinion will be entered,” Feldman wrote.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) issued a statement in support of Feldman’s ruling.
“We welcome Judge Feldman’s decision to lift the moratorium on deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico…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,” the statement said on API’s website.
The statement continued, “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 Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who issued the original moratorium, still stands behind it, and seeks to impose a new drilling ban in near future.
“I will issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities,” Salazar said in a statement after the ruling.
Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon April 21. In the wake of the explosion, which killed 11 workers, President Barack Obama issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. * U.S. Coast Guard photo
