Deepwater Drilling Ban Lifted by New Orleans Federal Judge

[Pepper]

Bloomberg:

Deepwater Drilling Ban Lifted by New Orleans Federal Judge
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Margaret Cronin Fisk - Jun 22, 2010

U.S. Deepwater Drilling Ban Lifted

A New Orleans federal judge lifted the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by President Barack Obama following the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Obama temporarily halted all drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet on May 27 to give a presidential commission time to study improvements in the safety of offshore operations. Government lawyers told U.S. District Judge Martin Feldmanthat the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig off the Louisiana coast in April was a “game changer’’ that exposed the risks of offshore oil exploration.



More than a dozen Louisiana offshore service and supply companies sued U.S. regulators to lift the ban. State officials claim 20,000 Louisiana jobs are in jeopardy if the deepwater drilling suspension lasts 18 months.


Jindal’s proposed compromise would let 33 deepwater rigs idled by the moratorium return to work within a month after their well-design plans were reapproved. His proposal also requires the rigs’ blowout prevention and other safety equipment to be recertified by a regulator stationed on each platform. Jindal and Caldwell suggested the compromise in a filing made in support of the lawsuit against federal regulators.

[Pepper]

A breath of sanity.

 

What will The Inept One do?

 

He could engage in two fronts. After all, he's at war with everyone except the Islamofascists.

 

He could fight a federal judge in NOLA and fight the governor in Arizona.

[Argyle58]

A breath of sanity.

 

What will The Inept One do?

 

He could engage in two fronts. After all, he's at war with everyone except the Islamofascists.

 

He could fight a federal judge in NOLA and fight the governor in Arizona.

 

Apparently, that's exactly what he's going to do. Filing an appeal on the drilling ban and will file against Arizona's law next week.

 

Way to unite the country, Barry.

[Valin]

A breath of sanity.

 

What will The Inept One do?

 

He could engage in two fronts. After all, he's at war with everyone except the Islamofascists.

 

He could fight a federal judge in NOLA and fight the governor in Arizona.

 

The question is will fight Hamas? Somehow I have some...reservation.

[Sabre86]

A breath of sanity.

 

What will The Inept One do?

 

He could engage in two fronts. After all, he's at war with everyone except the Islamofascists.

 

He could fight a federal judge in NOLA and fight the governor in Arizona.

 

Salazar has apparently said he'll simply reissue the order and reimpose the ban.

[pollyannaish]

A breath of sanity.

 

What will The Inept One do?

 

He could engage in two fronts. After all, he's at war with everyone except the Islamofascists.

 

He could fight a federal judge in NOLA and fight the governor in Arizona.

 

Salazar has apparently said he'll simply reissue the order and reimpose the ban.

 

 

Yup. Good grief.

[Casino67]

Seems as though Salazar won't be scoring any points with the judge. Damned determined to provide as much help to Soros as possible. If all goes well in November, government will be unable to do anything because of the investigations that will be going on.

 

A Florida Senator, didn't get his name, this morning in the Senate gave a long list of countries offering help that has been ignored by the Administration. Many countries were offering skimmers almost since day one and are still being held 'under consideration'. Tomorrow the transcript may be available, or maybe even the video. Naturally the Senator was very unhappy with Urkel and his gang.

[clearvision]

They are coming after the Judge because, at least in 2008,he owned shares in some oil companies.

[Pepper]

clearvision!

 

The horror of it all. And Obama took money from oil companies?

 

This is the administration who knows no bounds. Don't like something? Issue an executive order. Don't like a judge's ruling? Fight the judge or issue a new moratorium. Don't like a state law that enforces a federal law you don't like? Challenge the governor.

[Casino67]

Seems as though Salazar won't be scoring any points with the judge. Damned determined to provide as much help to Soros as possible. If all goes well in November, government will be unable to do anything because of the investigations that will be going on.

 

A Florida Senator, didn't get his name, this morning in the Senate gave a long list of countries offering help that has been ignored by the Administration. Many countries were offering skimmers almost since day one and are still being held 'under consideration'. Tomorrow the transcript may be available, or maybe even the video. Naturally the Senator was very unhappy with Urkel and his gang.

 

 

June 23, '10

 

Mr. LEMIEUX. This document goes

through the various offers of assistance

and what is the current status of the

response. So if we go to the European

Maritime Safety Agency, skimmers,

under consideration. May 13 is the date

of the offer. As of last Friday, no response.

Republic of Korea, skimmers,

under consideration. May 2, the offer is

made. As of last Friday, no response.

Sweden, April 30, skimmers; more

skimmers offered on June 15. Under

consideration. No response. United

Arab Emirates, skimmers, under consideration,

offer made May 10. No response.

Why are we not welcoming all

of these offers of assistance to bring

these skimmers and put them in the

Gulf of Mexico to suck up the oil?

I wish to show an example of an offer

of assistance made to the United

States. The ship here is from a Dutch

company called Dockwise. The name of

this vessel is the Swan. Unlike some of

the skimmers being used and deployed

by the Navy, which can be put on a

train car or flown on an airplane to the

location—and although very welcome

are relatively small—this is a massive

ship that could take in 20,000 tons of oil

or an oil-water mixture off of the

water. They rig the ship with skimming

equipment that hangs off the

sides.

So on May 7, Dockwise offered the

Swan to the United States. The offer

went under consideration. After 48

days, the offer for this massive ship

with 20,000 tons of skimming capacity

is still under consideration. But the

ship is not available anymore because

Dockwise now has employed the ship

for other purposes because the U.S.

Government, from all the information

we have, never got back to them. Here

is a Dutch company offering us a massive

ship to skim 20,000 tons of oil and

water off the top of the Gulf of Mexico,

and the U.S. Government doesn’t return

the phone call. They never hear

whether we want the ship. People involved

with the situation believe the

Swan was rejected due to Jones Act

considerations and that a similar vessel,

the SEAcorp vessel named the

Washington, was chosen instead. The

Washington is an American flag vessel.

Its capacity is 1,000 tons, one-twentieth

the capacity of the Swan. I am for

America first, but why aren’t we using

both of them? There is plenty of oil to

skim up. Use the American vessel, but

don’t fail to respond to the Dutch company

that has this massive ship that

has a 20,000-ton skimming capacity.

Why would we not employ both?

I could not be more frustrated with

the lack of response. I could not be

more frustrated with the lack of a

sense of urgency from this administration

in getting this job done.

 

Source

[Pepper]

Casino67! If I read correctly, the Obama Regime did not like the Dutch skimming method because it sucked up both oil and sea water, filtered out oil for offloading, and returned the cleansed bulk (say 99% sea water) to the ocean.

 

So of the fully contaminated sea water that they took in, there would always be a percentage of oil left in the discharged sea water - to be sucked up the next go around. The EPA did not like the fouling of the sea by the skimmer.

 

Go figure. They could not conceive that you could skim again and reduce the amount.

 

They have not heard of the saying, a half a loaf is better than none. They want the whole loaf. That is not going to happen. The Obama administration (they are in charge, you know) should use every means at their disposal to clean up this *uster*uck.

[clearvision]

I think the bigger problem they had is that they recovered the nasty oil and would then sell it. Oh the horror!

[Argyle58]

Look for European and African countries on the Atlantic to start filing law suits against the U.S. when the oil hits the Gulf Stream and starts washing up on their shores.

 

Also expect BP to file bankruptcy at about the same time....eliminating any financial responsibility.

 

 

How much of a coup will the $20 billion slush fund be then?

[Sabre86]

I think the bigger problem they had is that they recovered the nasty oil and would then sell it. Oh the horror!

Actually, they are going to be selling it and have promised to donate the money to the World Wildlife Fund or whatever its called these days.