Posted on 06/23/2010 4:48:14 PM PDT by jazusamo
Drilling companies and others who won an order from a federal judge Tuesday lifting the Obama Administration's moratorium on deepwater oil drilling are accusing the administration of defying the court's order by announcing plans to reimpose the moratorium.
Moratorium opponents filed papers in a New Orleans federal court this afternoon requesting an emergency hearing before Judge Martin Feldman, who entered the order blocking the moratorium. Since that time, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar indicated both in a statement and Congressional testimony that he plans to re-impose the moratorium soon based on information that wasn't fully developed when the six-month drilling ban was imposed in late May.
From the companies' brief: pdf
While Defendants have the right to challenge this Court’s Preliminary Injunction Order on appeal...and further have the right to engage in appropriate fact finding, data analysis and risk assessment followed perhaps by additional agency action, the law precludes Defendants from continuing today to enforce the Moratorium in defiance of this Court’s prohibition against its enforcement. At present, Defendants have not filed a Notice of Appeal to the Fifth Circuit, nor have they filed a motion with this Court seeking a stay of the Preliminary Injunction Order pending appeal. Accordingly, the Preliminary Injunction Order is in full force and effect, and is the law of this case. Nevertheless, Defendants have chosen to ignore and disobey it. Secretary Salazar’s comments have the obvious effect of chilling the resumption of OCS activities, which is precisely the wrong this Court sought to redress through its Preliminary Injunction Order.
The "chilling" reference seems to be a suggestion that the talk of reimposing the moratorium is essentially the same as doing so since companies aren't knowingly going to staff up drilling rigs that are likely to be shut down again in a matter of days.
A Justice Department official had no immediate response to the legal motion, but said a court hearing on the issue is expected Thursday.
An administration official, who asked not to be named, said Salazar's planned moves are consistent with the judge's order because his objection was that the factual basis for the earlier order was insufficient. The factual basis for the new moratorium will be different and include observations about the difficulties BP has had in containing and responding to the spill, the official said. Those concerns affect all companies involved in deepwater drilling, since their response plans tended to be similar.
It's unclear, though, whether Feldman will accept that such a move isn't an end-run around his order and, in particular, whether new facts will be more successful at justifying the deepwater vs. shallow water distinction and the 500 foot-depth cut-off in the earlier moratorium.
kinda strange Politico has finally noticed something we’ve all knew was happening all along....this administration thinks it’s above the law.
Yes, I’ve noticed they’re not putting the lib stance on some things recently, maybe Zer0 has finally gone too far for them.
It took them nine months to get around to deciding to send more troops to Afghanistan, but they appealed the moratorium ruling in milliseconds.
Slap 'em with contempt charges.
He probably forgot to send their monthly check... so a little editorial to remind him to pony up .......
Welcome to Venezuela. We hope you enjoy your stay.
lets all send a letter to Obozo - simply stating Kiss My Ass you horse’s ass.
After what the Judge said about Salazar Misleading the American People by adding two paragraphs to the Engineering report where he Falsely claimed that they had endorsed the Moratorium,its a wonder he is not in Jail let alone filing more Motions. This is an OUTRAGE!!!
Just think, even Hugo Chavez wouldn’t impose a drilling moratorium on Venezuela’s oil company. Yes, there have been dictators, tyrants and despots throughout history. But I can’t think of any that intentionally sought to destroy the source of their nation’s wealth.
I guess that’s one more reason to conclude that America isn’t zero’s favorite country.
It's time for - SOROS SOROS SOROS. The key difference here is not so much that SOROS is making money, but that this administration is willing to force joblessness on thousands of people, willing to hurt the U.S. economy, and willing to make the U.S. MORE dependent on foreign oil - for the purpose of enriching one man - SOROS.
Take up the cry my friends - SOROS SOROS SOROS.
That's not Salazar's decision to make in the face of an injunction. Bambi & Co. are either very dumb or very brazen (or both).
...incompetence depending on incompetence with a mixture of unqualified giving direction to a Narcissist. The current state of the US.
The way Salazar is proceeding with this it wouldn’t be surprising if he does end up in jail, this judge doesn’t seem to be one who takes fools lightly.
Well said and I believe it’s some of both, probably more dumb than brazen though.
I once had a case that could have ended up in Federal Court except for the fact that the defendant decided it best to settle.
The reason he settled so easily was that he had lied and had submitted false evidence during depositions.
Because federal judges take a very dim view of those who lie or submit false evidence, we had the defendant scared to death.
So why would this judge not haul in Salazar and put him in jail under a contempt of court charge?
I think we can now say without reservation that the administration’s actions regarding it’s disastrous “management” in the Gulf is clearly beyond “for your safety.”
In light of recent events regarding the command of deployed military forces there is a visible pattern of Hussein Øbama The Magnificent’s orders to his administrative staff proving little bammy is factually an incompetent thin-skinned bitch.
.
After Salazar jumping right on the judges ruling yesterday and saying he'd write another order I believe a contempt charge is a real possibility if Salazar follows through.
Wouldn't it be interesting if a British company would bring a genuine birth certificate from a former Crown colony that indicated someone was Constitutionally incapable of issuing orders as if they were a legitimate world ruler?
Maybe someone should have kept the bust of Churchill, and given the Queen something a little classier than a boxed set of WalMart DVDs...
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