Obama imposes a new ban on deepwater oil drilling

[Brubricker]

The Obama administration is set today to impose a new ban on deep-water drilling -- this time carefully rewritten in hopes of solving the problems that prompted a federal court to toss out the first attempt. An administration official confirmed the new moratorium -- likely to come in the form of a "notice to lessees" -- will be issued later shortly. The new directive effectively replaces NTL No. 4, the May 30 order that imposed the moratorium first announced by President Barack Obama three days earlier.

The administration has lost three bids to preserve the ban in federal courts, where it has so far been successfully challenged by Hornbeck Offshore Services and oil services companies. On June 22, a federal district judge tossed out the moratorium, saying the administration had overreached with a "blanket" ban on all drilling in water depths of at least 500 feet.

Two days later, the same judge rejected the administration's request to reinstate the moratorium while the government appealed the ruling. And on July 8, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, also refusing to reinstate the ban in the meantime.

According to a summary of the new order obtained by Hearst Newspapers and the Houston Chronicle, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's new ban -- technically a suspension of deep-water drilling activities -- would apply until Nov. 30, unless he decides to lift it earlier. The Interior Department is citing its authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in imposing the four-month suspension.

In effect, the new suspension is largely a repeat of the May 30 order that halted drilling on 33 deep-water projects in the Gulf of Mexico -- even though it is written with new nuance and detail.

UPDATED: Government to impose new drilling ban today | NewsWatch: Energy | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

 

[Oddball]

I can't wait until we get an actual adult in the White House again.

 

[B. Kidd]

This will actually be a 3rd attempt, cause lost on an appeal on the 1st attempt.

 

[WillowTree]

he's an idiot. what can we tell ya?

 

[Jeremy]

If at first you don't succeed... fail, bitch, complain, and sue again.

 

[Capitalist]

We depend on oil, well except for the leftists.
The leftists have not been driving cars, riding on buses, using electric lights, using the Internet, buying items made from plastic, or taking a warm shower. We will finally have true equality, equal suffering for all.
This pud puller in the WH has now become a rogue regime overnight by openly disregarding the Federal Appeals court ruling.

 

[Sinatra]

Obama attacks this court ruling, and taking Arizona to court as well, while throwing out the Black Panther voter intimidation case.

Ah yes...hope -n- change indeed!!!!!

 

[Toro]

Can anyone show me that other deepwater wells are a safety hazard? Are there other imminent disasters?

FFS, as bad as this is, this is the first accident in the Gulf in decades. Unemployment and oil prices are high. This will just make things worse.

This is dumb.

 

[boedicca]

We depend on oil, well except for the leftists.
The leftists have not been driving cars, riding on buses, using electric lights, using the Internet, buying items made from plastic, or taking a warm shower. We will finally have true equality, equal suffering for all.
This pud puller in the WH has now become a rogue regime overnight by openly disregarding the Federal Appeals court ruling.

Actually, leftists do drive cars, ride on buses, useelectric lights, use the Internet, buy items made from plastic, and take a warm shower (well, on this latter point, quite a few probably do not do this consistently).

 

[topspin]

I've been against obama's foolish energy stances all along. This is political suicide down south. 2 judges already have told him he's wrong. I guess my perspective is clouded being in the industry. But why not just ban BP?

 

[Mr. H.]

Next up: release oil from the SPR, flood the markets, drive down prices, line up the votes for November.

 

[topspin]

Next up: release oil from the SPR, flood the markets, drive down prices, line up the votes for November.

No way. But kudos that was funny.

 

[Sinatra]

Next up: release oil from the SPR, flood the markets, drive down prices, line up the votes for November.

Obama's dumb.

No joke - guy is a total intellectual chump...

 

[Samson]

I can't wait until we get an actual adult in the White House again.

You remember how boring it was having HW Bush as prez?

Bah-Humbug

I find this extremely entertaining.

 

[Old Rocks]

Until the companies have, in place, the means of handling a failure such as this, there should be no further drilling. When they have these resources in place, then the drilling can start again, carefully regulated so that this does not happen again.

In the meantime, we need to look at the subsidies that the petro companies are getting, while they are making multi-billion dollar profits every quarter. Time to put an end to that foolishness.

 

[topspin]

Until the companies have, in place, the means of handling a failure such as this, there should be no further drilling. When they have these resources in place, then the drilling can start again, carefully regulated so that this does not happen again.

In the meantime, we need to look at the subsidies that the petro companies are getting, while they are making multi-billion dollar profits every quarter. Time to put an end to that foolishness.

bring on 300 oil.

 

[Ravi]

The Obama administration is set today to impose a new ban on deep-water drilling -- this time carefully rewritten in hopes of solving the problems that prompted a federal court to toss out the first attempt. An administration official confirmed the new moratorium -- likely to come in the form of a "notice to lessees" -- will be issued later shortly. The new directive effectively replaces NTL No. 4, the May 30 order that imposed the moratorium first announced by President Barack Obama three days earlier.

The administration has lost three bids to preserve the ban in federal courts, where it has so far been successfully challenged by Hornbeck Offshore Services and oil services companies. On June 22, a federal district judge tossed out the moratorium, saying the administration had overreached with a "blanket" ban on all drilling in water depths of at least 500 feet.

Two days later, the same judge rejected the administration's request to reinstate the moratorium while the government appealed the ruling. And on July 8, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, also refusing to reinstate the ban in the meantime.

According to a summary of the new order obtained by Hearst Newspapers and the Houston Chronicle, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's new ban -- technically a suspension of deep-water drilling activities -- would apply until Nov. 30, unless he decides to lift it earlier. The Interior Department is citing its authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in imposing the four-month suspension.

In effect, the new suspension is largely a repeat of the May 30 order that halted drilling on 33 deep-water projects in the Gulf of Mexico -- even though it is written with new nuance and detail.

UPDATED: Government to impose new drilling ban today | NewsWatch: Energy | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

I don't see a problem with this.

The current leaking oil rig was being capped when the accident occurred. In other words, BP wasn't going to harvest the oil because they are interested in controlling prices...too much oil on the market brings down the price.

I wonder how many oil wells are out there not being used because the oil companies fix prices?

 

[USArmyRetired]

The Obama administration is set today to impose a new ban on deep-water drilling -- this time carefully rewritten in hopes of solving the problems that prompted a federal court to toss out the first attempt. An administration official confirmed the new moratorium -- likely to come in the form of a "notice to lessees" -- will be issued later shortly. The new directive effectively replaces NTL No. 4, the May 30 order that imposed the moratorium first announced by President Barack Obama three days earlier.

The administration has lost three bids to preserve the ban in federal courts, where it has so far been successfully challenged by Hornbeck Offshore Services and oil services companies. On June 22, a federal district judge tossed out the moratorium, saying the administration had overreached with a "blanket" ban on all drilling in water depths of at least 500 feet.

Two days later, the same judge rejected the administration's request to reinstate the moratorium while the government appealed the ruling. And on July 8, a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, also refusing to reinstate the ban in the meantime.

According to a summary of the new order obtained by Hearst Newspapers and the Houston Chronicle, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's new ban -- technically a suspension of deep-water drilling activities -- would apply until Nov. 30, unless he decides to lift it earlier. The Interior Department is citing its authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in imposing the four-month suspension.

In effect, the new suspension is largely a repeat of the May 30 order that halted drilling on 33 deep-water projects in the Gulf of Mexico -- even though it is written with new nuance and detail.

UPDATED: Government to impose new drilling ban today | NewsWatch: Energy | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

I don't see a problem with this.

The current leaking oil rig was being capped when the accident occurred. In other words, BP wasn't going to harvest the oil because they are interested in controlling prices...too much oil on the market brings down the price.

I wonder how many oil wells are out there not being used because the oil companies fix prices?

It was not a leaking oil rig. It was a leaking split riser on the BOP stack at the well head. How many wells out there that aren't in use? Thousands.

 

[KissMy]

Diamond Moves Second Drilling Rig Out of Gulf

Diamond Offshore Drilling said Monday it would move a second deepwater rig out of the Gulf of Mexico to waters off the Republic of Congo due to a U.S. drilling moratorium, and the industry expects others to follow.

The U.S. government issued a revised moratorium on deepwater oil drilling on Monday, which it said would last until Nov. 30. An earlier drilling suspension, issued on May 27, was lifted by a U.S. Appeals Court on July 8.

The government had imposed the six month moratorium on drilling in water more than 500 feet deep after the April 20 blowout on a Transocean-owned RIG that caused a catastrophic oil spill.

Diamond's move is with the same customer, Murphy Oil, but the old four-year contract running to March 2012 has been restructured into a one-year Gulf of Mexico commitment set to restart when Murphy feels it can get permits and meet regulatory requirements.

On Friday, Diamond became the first company to pull a rig out of the Gulf of Mexico because of the deepwater moratorium.

 

[Ravi]

UPDATED: Government to impose new drilling ban today | NewsWatch: Energy | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

I don't see a problem with this.

The current leaking oil rig was being capped when the accident occurred. In other words, BP wasn't going to harvest the oil because they are interested in controlling prices...too much oil on the market brings down the price.

I wonder how many oil wells are out there not being used because the oil companies fix prices?

It was not a leaking oil rig. It was a leaking split riser on the BOP stack at the well head. How many wells out there that aren't in use? Thousands.

Right, I should have said pipe.

But the fact of the matter is that this was not going to be harvested ... so why the need to drill more wells with no plans to harvest the oil?