In a major policy defeat for President Barack Obama, Federal Judge Martin Feldman issued a ruling from Louisiana which reversed President Barack Obama’s six-month shutdown of 33 exploratory deep-sea drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
In his edict, Judge Feldman found that there is no legal basis for Obama’s moratorium, stating that “the Report” on which the moratorium was based, “makes no effort to explicitly justify the moratorium: it does not discuss any irreparable harm that would warrant a suspension of operations, it does not explain how long it would take to implement the recommended safety measures.”
Judge Feldman also indicates that the Administration’s very own report which forms the basis for the six-month moratorium, included experts who do not agree with Obama’s suspension of drilling:
“Much to the government’s discomfort and this Court’s uneasiness,” Feldman points out in his decision, “the Summary also states that ‘the recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.’ As the plaintiffs, and the experts themselves, pointedly observe, this statement was misleading. The experts charge it was a ‘misrepresentation.’”
Feldman continues “It (the Report) was factually incorrect. Although the experts agreed with the safety recommendations contained in the body of the main Report, five of the National Academy experts and three of the other experts have publicly stated that they 'do not agree with the six month blanket moratorium' on floating drilling."
Mr. Obama takes issue with Judge Feldman’s ruling and will make an appeal to a higher court which also sits in Louisiana. If Feldman’s decision is sustained, expect Obama to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court where, I hope, a knife will finally be put into the heart of the administration’s wrong-headed moratorium.
No comments:
Post a Comment