The lawsuit filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. against the administration's moratorium is headed back into court. U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman, who granted a stay against the first deepwater drilling ban calling it "arbitrary and capricious," will hear the government's arguments in support of the moratorium today.

Last week, Ensco Offshore Co. filed a 450-page brief in its suit against the moratorium, accusing the administration of imposing "onerous new requirements for both shallow water and deep-water drilling" that violate the government's own rulemaking process. Rather than sending "notices to lessees" containing new drilling requirements, Ensco asserts the government should have issued a formal notice of rulemaking and held a public comment period.

Ensco is asking Ju... more »

Almost three-quarters of Americans oppose the administration's deepwater drilling ban, according to a new Bloomberg National Poll.

The poll, which was conducted July 9-12, found that 73 percent of Americans believe the moratorium is unnecessary, and they call the Deepwater Horizon tragedy a "freak accident."

Bloomberg reports the sentiment against the ban cuts across the political spectrum. 85 percent of Republicans oppose the drilling moratorium, as well as 73 percent of Independents and 65 percent of Democrats. Quoting one poll respondent, Ron Smallcomb of Mountaintop, Penn.: "This is crazy. If there's a plane crash you don't ground all the airlines and stop flying completely."

Most Americans also recognize that the tragedy was an accident. 80 percent of the respondents said BP should no... more »

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made good on his promise Monday and issued a new drilling moratorium. As he stated in a news release:

"I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry's inability in the deepwater to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely."

Of course, the moratorium will do nothing to improve the engineering and geological knowledge required to solve the immediate problem. It won't help the industry contain blowouts. It won't improve spill-response technology. And it won't encourage safer operations. But it will put tens of thousands of Americans out of work, reduce domestic oil and natural gas production and make the United States increasingly reliant on other countries for energy.

API President and CEO Jack Ge... more »

A three-judge panel in New Orleans yesterday struck down the six-month deepwater drilling moratorium which had led to the layoff of thousands of Gulf Coast energy workers.

John Cooney, an attorney for Hornbeck Offshore Services, the company that challenged the moratorium in a lower court, said:

"The problem with the moratorium is it's a one size fits all mechanism: the industry leader is treated the same way as the industry laggard."

He also predicted that offshore drilling would remain "in limbo" for a period of time due to the uncertainty caused by the drilling freeze and new restrictions that have been placed on shallow-water drilling.

A few hours before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision, API President and CEO Jack Gerard called the blanket moratorium "a step to... more »