Brubricker
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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