Salazar seeks to reimpose drilling moratorium

Source: Houston Chronicle

Salazar seeks to reimpose drilling moratorium
By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
June 22, 2010, 7:24PM

WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he will issue a new order imposing a moratorium on deepwater drilling after a federal judge struck down the existing one.

Salazar said in a statement Tuesday evening that the new order will contain additional information making clear why the six-month drilling pause was necessary in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. The judge in New Orleans who struck down the moratorium earlier in the day complained there wasn't enough justification for it.

Salazar pointed to indications of inadequate safety precautions by industry on deepwater wells. He said he would issue a new order in the coming days showing that a moratorium is needed.

The White House also is appealing the judge's ruling.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/7074535.html

Just send out a bunch of Federal inspectors and shut em down for any and all safety violation. That'd be all of them.

are there even enough fed inspectors to do that? There are over 3500 oil rigs in the gulf alone and federal safety inspectors are breathtakingly understaffed at every agency (Repubs saw to that over the years).
If there had been enough Federal inspectors/oversight, there may not have been a disaster in the first place.

So there ARE enough inspectors to be sent out to the 33 wells, find the violations and shut them down ;)

The problem is not inspections. The problem is that there is no current technology available to contain a spill in deepwater. Until that is developed there should be no drilling.

Pesky little problem arose. There are statutes and regulations that govern such things.

It would be nice to have a president who could just say, "I decree that X is closed" and have it closed. Or, "I decree that this person is to be put in prison for 20 years," and the person is put in prison for 20 years.

Unfortunately, we have laws, we have a Constitution, and we have this annoying division of powers that provide checks (ugh!) and balances (yick!).

Ah, for the utter simplicity of a dictatorship where it's one man and one vote, and whatever that one man votes for is it.

Now, if we just instituted juche, we'd join the truly good, enlightened nation on the planet.

(:puke:)

I don't think the Constitution has anything to do with the decision about the moratorium.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8616426

The Oil companies committed Fraud when filing their applications with the MMS. They claimed they could handle spills much larger
than even the current gusher in the Gulf. It is clear now that they lied in order to get approval and that the technology has not been developed to handle a spill. Hopefully this point will be made when a new moratorium is issued.

even if they don't find him guilty of anything they sure as hell could make life rough for him.

If we can impeach a judge for not recusing himself when he has conflicts of interests, not only hopefully will it correct this ruling, but it would also be helpful as serving notice to other judges that if they choose to serve corporate interests with their rulings, there will likely be consequences for doing so! The Supreme Court especially needs to get this message now!

This judge hasn't inspected any rig to know if they're safely working or not. Such a crony ruling. Salazar should regulate the hell out of the 33 deepwater exploratory wells.

He has to describe HOW. These are RULES, and must be WRITTEN.