OCS injunction back in district court

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has bounced the injunction against the U.S. Department of Interior outer continental shelf deepwater drilling moratorium back into Louisiana District Court.

DOI originally imposed a deepwater OCS drilling moratorium as part of its response to the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon disaster. But the Louisiana District Court imposed the injunction on the moratorium, pending resolution of a moratorium appeal in district court. DOI subsequently appealed the injunction in the 5th Circuit court but later issued a new drilling moratorium. DOI then asked the 5th Circuit court to rule the appeal case as moot, since DOI had withdrawn the version of the moratorium under appeal when it issued the new moratorium.

Although both moratoriums apply to deepwater drilling, they do so by applying different rules defining the moratorium scope. Key legal issues are whether the terms of the second moratorium would justify the imposition of an injunction in the same way as the first, and whether DOI can sidestep the injunction by simply issuing a different moratorium.

In an Aug. 16 court order, a majority of a panel of three 5th Circuit judges remanded the case back to district court, saying that the 5th Circuit court has insufficient record to determine whether the appeal case is moot. The appeal court has instructed the district court to conduct a hearing to establish the necessary facts on the record for a court ruling. The district court has now set a deadline of Aug. 24 for briefs in the case and the 5th Circuit court has cancelled oral arguments originally set for Sept. 1.

One of the 5th Circuit judges dissented from the majority opinion, saying that he thinks that the court has sufficient information on the record to make a ruling.

—Alan Bailey