Thursday, 08 July 2010 22:33

Interior Losses Offshore Drilling Moratorium Rule But Who Wins?

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On Thursday, the appellate panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied the US government’s request stating it "failed to demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury if the stay is not granted."

The ruling appears to be a short-term embarrassment to the Obama administration who has pressed the moratorium on certain deepwater drilling activities.

However, it is uncertain how much of a victory the ruling really might be for those who won the three judge decision.
The ruling said there was no evidence that deepwater drilling would resume immediately.

The Obama administration through the Interior Department imposed the deepwater drilling moratorium after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded which has resulted in what is known as the BP Oil Spill.

Kendra Barkoff, the spokeswoman for the Interior Department said "We continue to believe that it is not appropriate to drill new deepwater wells in the Gulf until we can be assured that future drilling activity can be conducted in a safe and environmentally responsible manner."

There will likely be another hearing in front of the full appellate court in late August.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said in a statement that he was pleased with the Court’s findings however expressed his concern that there would be more delays.

Jindal said, “We have very serious concerns that the Department of Interior is going to announce a second moratorium. As members of the court pointed out today during the hearing, despite the injunction against the original moratorium, we currently have a de facto moratorium because of uncertainty from the Department of Interior".