Seems to me, for very valid reasons:[quote]Many people are wondering about a federal judge's ruling that is preventing the U.S. government, in the person..."/>

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Why oil drilling halt got thrown out

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Sunday, June 27, 2010 08:45
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Saturday, June 26, 2010 7:24 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Seems to me, for very valid reasons:
Quote:

Many people are wondering about a federal judge's ruling that is preventing the U.S. government, in the person of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, from imposing a moratorium on permitting new oil wells or allowing wells in progress to be completed in waters deeper than 500 feet.

The lawsuit was filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services, an operator of deepwater supply boats. It was joined by a number of offshore service companies, and an "amicus" brief was filed by the state of Louisiana. A similar suit in Texas has been filed by Diamond Offshore, a major contract driller worldwide.

The moratorium would suspend all pending current or approved drilling operations for new deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Pacific for six months, regardless of the safety records of the operators and drilling companies performing necessary activities and regardless of the likely economic damage caused to the Gulf Coast economies.

In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman points out that the government issued the notice of the moratorium without meeting the minimum requirements set out in the law. He cited two separate laws: the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

His ruling explains that the government report and subsequent memoranda make no effort to establish any irreparable harm to the government that would warrant a suspension of operations. The report and the follow-up memos do not provide a timetable for how long it would take to implement any safety recommendations.

The government also didn't provide analysis, required by law, concerning the economic damage likely to be caused by the moratorium. It made no differentiation between shallow and deepwater wells (the 500-foot boundary was added after the Shallow Water Energy Security Coalition pointed out that shallow-water drilling rigs, called jack-ups, use blowout preventers that are mounted at the surface, not at the sea floor).

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act is the main law dealing with the offshore exploration and production sector. The act mandates consideration of the economic, social and environmental values of resources contained in the Outer Continental Shelf.

The other law mentioned in his ruling is the Administrative Procedure Act, which provides that agency actions may be set aside by a judge only if they are "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion or not otherwise in accordance with the law." The secretary provided no evidence that he had balanced his concern for environmental safety with the stated policy of making leases available for development or that he considered any alternatives to a blanket moratorium on all drilling.

In effect, the six-month suspension will become a five-year-plus cessation of drilling activity with all of the concomitant problems of regional depression, increased oil prices, greater import dependency, increased risk of spills -- because additional tankers would be bringing more crude or refined products into the U.S., and tankers have a much worse safety record than do drilling rigs and domestic production systems -- and an ever-worsening balance of payments problem. Oh, by the way, the coastal restoration fund, predicated on the receipt of royalty payments from deep water production, will also be history.

Given the above, I tend to agree. I wish to hell they'd get out there and INSPECT the ones driling, fix the regulations and especially oversight, and get on with it so at least some people in the Gulf can make a living!


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off



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Saturday, June 26, 2010 7:40 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


"Given the above, I tend to agree. I wish to hell they'd get out there and INSPECT the ones driling, fix the regulations and especially oversight, and get on with it so at least some people in the Gulf can make a living!"

Hello,

I can't argue against following the law. I do think it will be AT LEAST 6 months before we can get the inspection agency up to speed and properly reporting. The problems with MMS were systemic, deep and wide. But it sounds like we're going to continue to issue permits and continue to build platforms while our regulatory agency is still disfunctional and being reorganized.

Ask me how warm and bubbly I feel about that.

--Anthony

Due to the use of Naomi 3.3.2 Beta web filtering, the following people may need to private-message me if they wish to contact me: Auraptor, Kaneman, Piratenews, Wulfenstar. I apologize for the inconvenience.

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 7:46 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


I agree; however, why not make the moratorium "until inspected and verified as safe" rather than a blanket six months? That would make more sense, and as each was verified safe, they could resume work.


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off


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Saturday, June 26, 2010 7:50 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Hello,

I agree with that suggestion, Niki. I always felt six months was optimistic. 'Until inspected and shown to be safe' is much better.

--Anthony

Due to the use of Naomi 3.3.2 Beta web filtering, the following people may need to private-message me if they wish to contact me: Auraptor, Kaneman, Piratenews, Wulfenstar. I apologize for the inconvenience.

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 7:53 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


I'm still a bit confused, though. The judge seems to think that stopping all the rigs is "capricious" because only one of them exploded and sank.

So when a DC-10 full of passengers goes down, and nobody knows why, wouldn't it be capricious to ground all airliners of that type?


"I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."


On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you. --Auraptor

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 11:14 AM

DREAMTROVE


The problem is that our new admin is just like the last one and tries to place orders by fiat. The moratorium is a good idea, it should be done in a more serious way, hopefully a more legal one is in the mix.

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 1:01 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

Originally posted by dreamtrove:
The problem is that our new admin is just like the last one and tries to place orders by fiat. The moratorium is a good idea, it should be done in a more serious way, hopefully a more legal one is in the mix.



Well, one quick way to put a stop to all the deepwater drilling is to pull their permits because they falsified their government documents. Anyone who says they're prepared to deal with such a spill is obviously lying, as per testimony to Congress in recent weeks.


"I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."


On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you. --Auraptor

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 2:42 PM

DREAMTROVE


Yeah" clearly you should stop the drilling until there's a safety review, but ti also wouldnthurt to call int he Russians or someone who can actually get the job done.

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 3:43 PM

CATPIRATE


Well lets see no training for employees or just standards. Sub contracting to save a buck and put the blame on them. Hey lets get parts from china with low standards. How about products that fail. Could be metalurgy on a pipe or a valve. Who knows? These are the dudes who poison pet food, baby food, and toothpaste.


Bayou alert sea life is starting to die. Oyster beds may never return, hopefully not.

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Saturday, June 26, 2010 7:24 PM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!


Quote:

Originally posted by Niki2:

His ruling explains that the government report and subsequent memoranda make no effort to establish any irreparable harm to the government...



Courts don't give a shit about irreparable harm to the citizens, only if it harms Big Brother's profit.

This is also a great way for BP to put its competition out of business.

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Sunday, June 27, 2010 2:21 AM

DREAMTROVE


John makes an interesting and scary point: once a law is in place it's relatively easy to keep it in place. If there is a moratorium on drilling which includes an exemption for the BP "relief well" it could include an exemption that could be used by BP in the future, while banning all other drilling.

Consider this scenario.

King Barry George III: we must stop the spilling.
Slick McOil: to stop the spillage we need to stop the drillage.
George: a ban on all drilling!
Slick: except the relief well
George: oh right, not the relief well

** all drilling stops except for BP **

George: but it's still spilling, even after the relief well :(
Slick: we found a previously unknown fracture, these might spread all over the gulf. We might need another relief well
George: how many more of these relief well do we need?
Slick: oh, just one, for now. See, it's this neighboring oil field. After the spill, those fractures, they go everywhere, so we don't know what fields might be connected, well just have to keep tapping into them every time they come up like this.
George: so if I let this relief well policy stand, you will keep these relief wells coming? Are you sure this will work?
Slick: when have I ever steered you wrong?

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Sunday, June 27, 2010 8:42 AM

JONGSSTRAW


I built a makeshift solar sail using empty Chef Boy-R-Dee Cheese Raviloi cans and attached it to my car antenna. It collects and accelerates charged protons, which adds about 25% effeciency to my gas mileage. Now if I could just modify the Starkist deflector dish to emit an inverse tachyon pulse in the gamma range I'd never need gasoline again.

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Sunday, June 27, 2010 8:45 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


That is a hysterical scenario. There are loopholes a-plenty in everything everyone does, but THAT "loophole"? How absurd. In the first place, nobody's stupid enough to believe a "relief well" here and there all over the place has anything to do with this gusherfuck. In the second, the uproar would be stupendous if only BP were allowed to drill.

Bsides, I thought our government was in collusion with Big Oil...why would they not let others drill but let BP? No profit in THAT, and do you REALLY think it would get past the "drill, baby, drill", "we need less reliance on 'foreign' oil" crowd??

Some conspiracy theories are just TOO far out there to do anything but laugh at them. Surely you can do better, or else put your tin hat back on and go to your room.


Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
signing off


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