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Judge orders Interior to move quickly Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement given deadline on Gulf deepwater permits Cain Burdeau Associated Press Writer
The federal judge who struck down the Obama administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling after the Gulf oil spill on Feb. 17 ordered the Interior Department to act quickly on five pending permits.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman told the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement to act within 30 days. The agency rules on permit applications in the Gulf of Mexico.
The judge said the agency needed to process permits to “restore normalcy to the Gulf region.” He said the inaction had hurt drilling companies and threatened them with “endless disability.”
His ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Ensco Offshore Co., which claims the government has wrongfully delayed issuing permits since it lifted a moratorium on such projects in October. The administration had barred new drilling in reaction to the spill.
In June, Feldman overturned the agency’s decision to halt new permits for deepwater projects and suspend drilling on 33 exploratory wells after the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill.
The ruling was hailed by drilling advocates.
“It’s past time we got back to work in the offshore,” said Erik Milito, a director at the American Petroleum Institute. “Every day that goes by without a permit is damaging to our economy.”
Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for BOEMRE, said regulators were reviewing Feldman’s ruling.
The Obama administration has said that it wants to make sure offshore drilling can be done safely before issuing new permits. Regulators have demanded that oil companies prove they’re able to contain a blowout of an underwater well before granting permits to drill again in Gulf waters deeper than 500 feet.
System built On Feb. 17, a group of oil companies led by Exxon said it had built such a system. It is designed to be fully assembled in two to three weeks after a blowout. It can work at depths up to 8,000 feet and capture as much as 60,000 barrels of liquid and 120 million cubic feet of gas per day.
BP’s Macondo well blew out at about 5,000 feet below sea level and spilled an average of 52,400 barrels per day. At its peak, BP’s well spewed 61,900 barrels per day.
Earlier in February, Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said that companies must show they have “access to and the ability to deploy” equipment that can contain another large spill. Government engineers are still reviewing the new system.
Meanwhile, Gulf Coast politicians vowed to keep the pressure on the Interior Department.
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he would continue to block the nomination of a new U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director until drilling permits are issued.
“I’ll continue my hold on the president’s newest Interior Department nominee until he follows the law and issues deepwater exploratory permits,” Vitter said.
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