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Louisiana Federal Judge Blocks Drilling Moratorium
eldavojohn writes "In the ongoing BP debacle, the Obama administration imposed a six-month moratorium on offshore drilling and a halt to 33 exploratory wells going into the Gulf of Mexico. Now a federal judge (in New Orleans, no less) is unsatisfied with the reasons for this and stated, 'An invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country.' The state's governor agrees on the grounds that blocking drilling will cost the state thousands of lucrative jobs." The government quickly vowed to appeal, pointing out that a moratorium on 33 wells is unlikely to have a devastating impact in a region hosting 3,600 active wells. And reader thomst adds this insight on the judge involved in the case: "Yahoo's Newsroom is reporting that the judge who overturned the drilling moratorium holds stock in drilling companies. You can view his financial disclosure forms listing his stock holdings online at Judicial Watch (PDF)."
There's a distinction between a production well and a exploratory well. A production well is already drilled an in place. Stopping exploratory wells will postpone new discoveries by more time when the moratorium ends. Also, it means we less knowledge to be gathered about the basins people have wells in - there's only so much that can be learned with sonics. Less knowledge about a basin means more risk to the production wells - is this what is intended? If not, the moratorium is stupid. With all due respect to Americans, but it's the production of a weak and coward government caring more about feel good measures and PR.
Sometimes shit happens. And shit happened at Deepwater. No one wanted it. It's risky business. Living is risky. Let's clean up the mess and keep drilling.
Drill, baby, drill.
Yahoo's Newsroom is reporting that the judge who overturned the drilling moratorium holds stock in drilling companies.
No conflict of interest here, no sir...
OK, that's fine. But that doesn't make his point any less valid. Obama, and the feds in general, fly by the seat of their pants having a giant overreaction to everything that happens. Yes, it's a horrible oil spill, but how will a moratorium help anything? Are we expecting more explosions and leaks in the near future?
If you aren't suspicious of your government's actions, you aren't doing your job as a responsible citizen.
For something the government did?
BP's well failing doesn't magically cause the new wells to become less safe. Either they're safe or they're not and it's the governments fault for not knowing one way or the other. They're in charge of oversite and this episode has made them realize they don't know how safe all this drilling is.
The idea was to hit the "pause" button on 33 new wells while we figure out why the new-well drilling at Deepwater went so wrong.
The problem is, there is no "pause" button.
To shut down these wells they have to do exactly the same procedure that failed on DeepWater Horizon! The fact is, the risky operation is in sealing it off, not continuing to drill.
Fucking idiot president knows fuck all about the oil industry, and is making another spill far more likely just to make himself look less like a complete imbecile in this situation.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller