Posted on 01/03/2011 4:16:27 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In a move that could signal a long-awaited return to business-as-usual in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration announced Monday that it would allow 13 companies to resume deepwater oil and gas drilling suspended when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded last spring.
The Administration had instituted a moratorium on deepwater drilling after BP's Macondo well blew out on April 20, killing 11 workers on the rig and spewing nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the ocean, in the country's worst offshore oil disaster. The Interior Department lifted the moratorium in mid-October. Yet because drilling permits have been issued at a far slower pace than before the disaster, the Administration has faced criticism from the oil industry, Gulf Coast politicians and citizens that a de facto moratorium persists.
So far, two companies have received new permits after the lifting of the moratorium, but for activities they could have done under the suspension any way, an administration official explained. The oil and gas industry and its supporters have been waiting for permits to be issued for actual exploration and development, and Monday's decision makes way for such work.
"We are taking into account the special circumstances of those companies whose operations were interrupted by the moratorium and ensuring that they are able to resume previously-approved activities," said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Michael R. Bromwich. "For those companies that were in the midst of operations at the time of the deepwater suspensions, today's notification is a significant step toward resuming their permitted activity."
The decision Monday allows the companies, including Chevron, Shell, Hess and Kerr-McGee. to return to 16 wells they were drilling in early 2010, nearly all of them exploratory wells.....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
More Obamaucratic (how do you like the new word)Red Tape. He takes the whole concept of bureaucratic red tape to a whole new level . Where is the bullshit meter when we need it!
I wonder what the price was in ‘campaiggn donations’ to be allowed to drill again. I am so sick of this Chicago thug—I pray every day that God would take him out and replace him and his evil minions with Godly men and women.
PR.
“Obama administration announced Monday that it would ALLOW 13 companies to resume...drilling.”
Allow. Good to be the venezuelan dictator wannabe.
LOL! This is the “lie-to-me” administration!
Hmm...why doesn’t some wild-catter with a pair go ahead and drill? Maybe Michelle will show up to stop him?
How gracious of him.
The former CEO of Shell called him out.
The message .....we drill or you die
He got the message
Since the florida zone ends exactly at the Florida border, is that state mandated?
Haven't heard a thing about it since the well was capped. Did obambi have a magical Harry Potter wand to make it all go away, or did the planet just take care of itself like it always does? I'm confused. And yes, I know about the Mexican blowout that some how also miraculously dissipated.
Congress needs to de-fund the regulators, radically limit their authority to regulate, and set a time period that if no final bureaucratic action is taken within 3 months, permission to drill is deemed given.
Drilling probably won't happen until Obama is out of office. What company would want to invest $$$ in drilling preparation when Obama may issue another arbitrary suspension at any time?
You aren't thinking like an America hating Marxist. The above allows the bureaucrats to do something once every 89 days and drag the process out for years. A better way is to look how long it has taken under the past several presidencies and give them the shortest time that any took. If it took the Bush administration 5 weeks to approve a permit, then 5 weeks is all Obastard has.
I say PR. How many times have we heard this before?
*
Even if obama “grants” a few rare permits,his EPA goon squad is denying permits for oil refineries. So even if they pull up the oil,what are they going to do with it? Boy, are we screwed!!!
I did consider that; that’s why I said “final action.” The kind of final agency ruling that resolves all administrative issues and from which an appeal can be taken to a proper court.
If an agency simply says “No” without conducting a full review of all the application, it’s considered arbitrary & capricious and subject to being overturned (at least when presented to a US District Court Judge appointed by Reagan), and the plaintiff may also get injunctive relief to allow them to proceed while the case is pending.
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