Ban on Deep Well Drilling Blocked

[Col Hogan]

A federal judge in New Orleans blocked a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a ruling the White House said it would immediately appeal.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, which halted all drilling in more than 500 feet of water and prevented new permits from being issued.

President Obama ordered the moratorium after the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off Louisiana. Eleven people died in the blast, which triggered an underwater oil gusher.

Brian Collins, an attorney for the Justice Department, had insisted Monday that the suspension was necessary while officials conducted a safety review.

But a group of companies that provides boats and equipment to the offshore drilling industry filed a lawsuit claiming the government has no evidence that existing operations pose a threat to the Gulf of Mexico and asked the court to declare the moratorium invalid and unenforceable.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/22/gulf.o ... tml?hpt=T1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Baldy]

George Soros is gonna be pissed.

[grizzaholic]

George Soros is gonna be pissed.

No doubt.

[bluehenbillk]

WTF - it's amazing the corruption in this country with the special interests. The judges are in the pockets of big oil. Banks were "too big to fail"? I'd argue that big oil is just too big, freakin BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, etc..

If Congress or Obama had a sack, which they don't, they'd sock it to big oil & get serious about getting off of it. Obama should just go on TV & spell it out & tell everyone we're gonna have to suck up higher gas prices for a bit & here's what we're going to do to fast-track alternative energy coming to the market. Incentivize the shit out of the car companies to make cars to run on it & to quote Nike - Just Do It.

If JFK could set a goal to get Man on the Moon in less than a decade, it seems to me that running on a new energy policy should be easier.

F the courts, F big oil.

If the court can rule that today, then just up the ante that BP has to pay.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

finally a federal judge with some common sense.

[ASUG8]

WTF - it's amazing the corruption in this country with the special interests. The judges are in the pockets of big oil. Banks were "too big to fail"? I'd argue that big oil is just too big, freakin BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, etc..

If Congress or Obama had a sack, which they don't, they'd sock it to big oil & get serious about getting off of it. Obama should just go on TV & spell it out & tell everyone we're gonna have to suck up higher gas prices for a bit & here's what we're going to do to fast-track alternative energy coming to the market. Incentivize the shit out of the car companies to make cars to run on it & to quote Nike - Just Do It.

If JFK could set a goal to get Man on the Moon in less than a decade, it seems to me that running on a new energy policy should be easier.

F the courts, F big oil.

If the court can rule that today, then just up the ante that BP has to pay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAFE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Look at the history of CAFE - the average mileage required has risen from 18 mpg in 1978 to 30 mpg in 2011. Positive steps to be sure, but it shouldn't take 20+ yrs to increase CAFE this much. Very few people will buy a $35K electric car that only runs for 200 miles on a charge, then have to wait 3 hrs or more for a recharge.

I agree that lighting a fire under the collective asses of anyone desiring to sell a car in the US needs to happen to lessen the reliance on oil (either foreign or domestic). We'll likely always need some for plastics, tires, pavement, and a multitude of other uses but our usage would fall dramatically with some huge congressional action and effective oversight unlike current agencies firmly in bed with those they regulate.

[bluehenbillk]

The best part of the story on CNN is the second link below the story reads:

"LIVE: Watch oil gush into Gulf"

[Grizalltheway]

Wow, "don't pose a threat"??? Let's not forget that the Deepwater Horizon was hailed as a roaring success just days before the shit hit the fan.

[mainejeff]

I say let the Gulf Coasters have their deep water drilling! Better to keep it in the current cesspool then to create new ones!

[GannonFan]

Wow, "don't pose a threat"??? Let's not forget that the Deepwater Horizon was hailed as a roaring success just days before the **** hit the fan.

Well, the "don't pose a threat" thing is always subjective. Everything poses some level of a threat - a nuclear power plant could lose containment, a plane can crash, a truck carrying chemicals can explode on the road, etc, etc. We don't ground all flights after a plane crashes and we don't ban travel on roads after accidents. Obviously the scope of this is much bigger, and that's part of the subjective part of this, but it's not like we had a spill like this happen before. Both the magnitude of the risk and the likliehood of the risk need to be weighed and that's always going to be a subjective interpretation.

[UNHWildCats]

finally a federal judge with some common sense.

you truly are a fucking idiot.

[ASUG8]

It will likely take more than 6 months for this to work its way through the court system anyway.

[GannonFan]

WTF - it's amazing the corruption in this country with the special interests. The judges are in the pockets of big oil. Banks were "too big to fail"? I'd argue that big oil is just too big, freakin BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, etc..

If Congress or Obama had a sack, which they don't, they'd sock it to big oil & get serious about getting off of it. Obama should just go on TV & spell it out & tell everyone we're gonna have to suck up higher gas prices for a bit & here's what we're going to do to fast-track alternative energy coming to the market. Incentivize the **** out of the car companies to make cars to run on it & to quote Nike - Just Do It.

If JFK could set a goal to get Man on the Moon in less than a decade, it seems to me that running on a new energy policy should be easier.

F the courts, F big oil.

If the court can rule that today, then just up the ante that BP has to pay.

I agree that we should be far more aggressive on this, but let's also be realistic - going to the moon was far easier and much less in terms of scope than changing the entire country to non-petroleum based transportation, heating, and power generation (leaving industrial use alone for the time being). Just the cost to replace every car in America (not the trucks, buses and other equipment) would be well over $4 trillion, and that doesn't even include the amount of money it would take to research the technology we would adopt, and let alone the cost to convert/build factories to build the cars in the first place. Considering the deficit we find ourselves in now and the path we are following, it's hard to imagine where government could get the money to try to drastically incenticize this move.

It's a great goal and we should do it, but it's going to take a lot more than just taxing the crap out of the gas pump, and we'll take quite an economic hit in the meantime before we see the benefits of the transition. And of course, at the end of the day, if what we move to (say electic cars) ends up costing more than what we're paying for oil now, then we may never make back the cost it took to get there.

[ATrain]

I really wish there were a way to harness and store the electricity from a lightning bolt. A few strikes could power the entire country for a year or more.

As for today's ruling, as long as people are going back to work

[Grizalltheway]

I really wish there were a way to harness and store the electricity from a lightning bolt. A few strikes could power the entire country for a year or more.

As for today's ruling, as long as people are going back to work

Trust me, between the 6 billion+ of us, we COULD figure out much better ways to produce all the energy we need, but nothing compares with the profitability of King Oil.

[kalm]

WTF - it's amazing the corruption in this country with the special interests. The judges are in the pockets of big oil. Banks were "too big to fail"? I'd argue that big oil is just too big, freakin BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, etc..

If Congress or Obama had a sack, which they don't, they'd sock it to big oil & get serious about getting off of it. Obama should just go on TV & spell it out & tell everyone we're gonna have to suck up higher gas prices for a bit & here's what we're going to do to fast-track alternative energy coming to the market. Incentivize the **** out of the car companies to make cars to run on it & to quote Nike - Just Do It.

If JFK could set a goal to get Man on the Moon in less than a decade, it seems to me that running on a new energy policy should be easier.

F the courts, F big oil.

If the court can rule that today, then just up the ante that BP has to pay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAFE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Look at the history of CAFE - the average mileage required has risen from 18 mpg in 1978 to 30 mpg in 2011. Positive steps to be sure, but it shouldn't take 20+ yrs to increase CAFE this much. Very few people will buy a $35K electric car that only runs for 200 miles on a charge, then have to wait 3 hrs or more for a recharge.

I agree that lighting a fire under the collective asses of anyone desiring to sell a car in the US needs to happen to lessen the reliance on oil (either foreign or domestic). We'll likely always need some for plastics, tires, pavement, and a multitude of other uses but our usage would fall dramatically with some huge congressional action and effective oversight unlike current agencies firmly in bed with those they regulate.

Good post, but I would add that the average car trip in the u.s. is something like 45 miles.

[bluehenbillk]

As for today's ruling, as long as people are going back to work

Fact of the matter is, little to no people are going back to work. Regardless of all the politics, etc. Shell & Marathon have stated they have no intention of resuming drilling until the whole thing plays out.

[Appaholic]

I really wish there were a way to harness and store the electricity from a lightning bolt. A few strikes could power the entire country for a year or more.

As for today's ruling, as long as people are going back to work

Trust me, between the 6 billion+ of us, we COULD figure out much better ways to produce all the energy we need, but nothing compares with the profitability of King Oil.

Maybe the profits of King Coal? And if the workers in the Gulf region want deep-drilling, then let them have it....better to fok uptheir backyard with oil than my view with a scarred mountain destroyed by mountain-top removel mining. At this point in time, the only alternative to Oil is Coal, sol let 'em keep it in the Gulf....it's already fokked beyond repair for my lifetime....

[travelinman67]

Trust me, between the 6 billion+ of us, we COULD figure out much better ways to produce all the energy we need, but nothing compares with the profitability of King Oil.

"Maybe the profits of King Coal? And if the workers in the Gulf region want deep-drilling, then let them have it....better to fok uptheir backyard with oil than my view with a scarred mountain destroyed by mountain-top removel mining. At this point in time, the only alternative to Oil is Coal, sol let 'em keep it in the Gulf....it's already fokked beyond repair for my lifetime....", he narcissticly posted from his laptop, powered by electricity produced at the nearby coal-fired generating plant.

[Appaholic]

"Maybe the profits of King Coal? And if the workers in the Gulf region want deep-drilling, then let them have it....better to fok uptheir backyard with oil than my view with a scarred mountain destroyed by mountain-top removel mining. At this point in time, the only alternative to Oil is Coal, so let 'em keep it in the Gulf....it's already fokked beyond repair for my lifetime....", he narcissticly posted from his laptop, powered by electricity produced at the nearby coal-fired generating plant.

Of course I use coal...everyone does....but if given the choice to use coal vs oil, I would use oil as it doesn't fok up my backyard like blowing off the local mountaintops will & I'm in the process of pricing solar panels or windmill to power my house. If the people in the Gulf are willing to take a chance on obviously unproven & unsafe technology to provide themselves money to purchase a bass boat & a tricked-out dually to haul it with down to the Redneck Riviera for vacation, then let them....saves my mountains....

[dbackjon]

Judge needs to be impeached. He has no business ruling on this:

The federal judge who overturned Barack Obama's offshore drilling moratorium reported owning stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry — including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP prior to its April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico — according to 2008 financial disclosure reports.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction today barring the enforcement of the president's proposed six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, arguing that the ban is too broad.
According to Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch [pdf], the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business.
It's not surprising that Feldman, who is a judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, has invested in the offshore drilling business — an Associated Press investigation found earlier this month that more than half the federal judges in the districts affected by the BP spill have financial ties to the oil and gas industry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100622/ ... ews_ts2771" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Baldy]

Judge needs to be impeached. He has no business ruling on this:

The federal judge who overturned Barack Obama's offshore drilling moratorium reported owning stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry — including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP prior to its April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico — according to 2008 financial disclosure reports.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction today barring the enforcement of the president's proposed six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, arguing that the ban is too broad.
According to Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch [pdf], the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business.
It's not surprising that Feldman, who is a judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, has invested in the offshore drilling business — an Associated Press investigation found earlier this month that more than half the federal judges in the districts affected by the BP spill have financial ties to the oil and gas industry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100622/ ... ews_ts2771" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Impeached? You're being quite the drama queen, dback.

Maybe we need to investigate Obama's holdings and see how much stock he owns with Soros in Petrobras. They are the only ones who are profiting from Obama's knee-jerk, arbitrary, and capricious decision.

I find it quite funny that the MSM is trying to hammer the judge about oil stocks he owns, but refuse to acknowledge the 800 lb. elephant in the room. The people who craft major policy for Obama reside in George Soros' Center for American Progress. George Soros' 2nd largest investment is Petrobras, Obama has promised $2 Billion in "investment" dollars so Petrobras can expand it's offshore drilling capacity. With the strike of a pen, Obama has halted off shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The companies who own those oil rigs aren't going to let them stand idle for 6 months. Anyone care to guess where many of those rigs will end up?

[GannonFan]

Judge needs to be impeached. He has no business ruling on this:

The federal judge who overturned Barack Obama's offshore drilling moratorium reported owning stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry — including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP prior to its April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico — according to 2008 financial disclosure reports.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction today barring the enforcement of the president's proposed six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, arguing that the ban is too broad.
According to Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch [pdf], the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business.
It's not surprising that Feldman, who is a judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, has invested in the offshore drilling business — an Associated Press investigation found earlier this month that more than half the federal judges in the districts affected by the BP spill have financial ties to the oil and gas industry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100622/ ... ews_ts2771" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Having the potential for bias does not make the decision incorrect. And in these days of mutual funds and 401k's, it's hard to find people who don't have some financial tie to almost every industry. Unless someone can point to something really concrete that this judge ruled grossly inaccurately, then it's hard to fault him.

[Appaholic]

Judge needs to be impeached. He has no business ruling on this:

The federal judge who overturned Barack Obama's offshore drilling moratorium reported owning stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry — including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP prior to its April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico — according to 2008 financial disclosure reports.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman issued a preliminary injunction today barring the enforcement of the president's proposed six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, arguing that the ban is too broad.
According to Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch [pdf], the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business.
It's not surprising that Feldman, who is a judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, has invested in the offshore drilling business — an Associated Press investigation found earlier this month that more than half the federal judges in the districts affected by the BP spill have financial ties to the oil and gas industry.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100622/ ... ews_ts2771" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Having the potential for bias does not make the decision incorrect. And in these days of mutual funds and 401k's, it's hard to find people who don't have some financial tie to almost every industry. Unless someone can point to something really concrete that this judge ruled grossly inaccurately, then it's hard to fault him.

Agree

[BDKJMU]

I really wish there were a way to harness and store the electricity from a lightning bolt. A few strikes could power the entire country for a year or more.

As for today's ruling, as long as people are going back to work

Trust me, between the 6 billion+ of us, we COULD figure out much better ways to produce all the energy we need, but nothing compares with the profitability of King Oil.

Baloney- Big Govt profits far more off of oil than Big Oil does.