Court rejects US bid to keep drilling moratorium

Source: AP

NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court has rejected the U.S. government's effort to keep a six-month deepwater drilling moratorium in place.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled soon after a Thursday afternoon hearing in a lawsuit filed by companies that oppose the drilling ban.

The Interior Department said the moratorium was necessary while it studied deepwater drilling risks in the wake of the BP oil spill.

The moratorium was previously struck down by a lower court on June 22.




Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100708/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_moratorium_6

and drop them off in the middle of what was once the Gulf of Mexico.

That says it.

Where do they dig these "judges" up? This kind of decision is unconscionable.

I hope there is an appeal and this decision is reversed.

We need a people's revolution in this country and we need one soon. It's obvious that we or the planet have no say anymore. Only those with money.

...Oh wait.

sickening.

You think he should hang said judges?

Next, he should declare the entire Gulf a disaster area. This should give him the tools to stop the drilling - he can evacuate all personnel on the rigs.

Then, he can go after every single rig and have it shut down because the plans they submitted to the MMS are erroneous and fraudulent.

Then, he can seize the assets of BP America and shut down all their rigs.

Then he can get a team of lawyers to go over every possible scenario to stop the drilling - I'm sure they can come up with a few more ideas than this.

Finally, he can stop playing around and pretending to be on the side of the people and do something to stop these corporations that are destroying our country.

most of our courts and politicians have been captured by big business, and we can now plainly see that their ONLY priority is $$$

I was busted with 45 grams of cannabis in virginia in 1999, i paid 10 000 dollars to a lawyer who went golfing with the judge 3 days before the trial, the da asked for 10 years i got found innocent on all charges in 3 minutes. pay the judge and you get what you want.

I mean that would be unfair, class warfare, anti-big oil...

I know I've left out many more 'feel badly for corporations' slogans

All the judges in the 5th circuit are neck deep in ties to oil.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/07/08/junkets-for-judges/

The 5th Circuit Court in a pit, neck deep in oil

wrong?















What?

How much room do you have in your back yard?

84 years of drilling? This town has the highest rate of STD transmission in Texas, had the first AIDS death in Texas, has the second highest teen birth rate in the nation, 50% of the population over the age of 25 does not have so much as a high school diploma.

That's mine. It's called the Permian Basin. And we've certainly prospered from all this drilling.

Yours?

ruined the groundwater. Never fear, though. Those with ruined water wells were allowed to hook onto the city for a mere 150% of the normal city rate for water.

We got Boeing down the road building gas hogs.

But it's mine. The good news is that production last year was equal to 1935, and the peak was in 1972, so maybe in another 50 years, we can be done with destruction of the local people and environment.

Texas belongs to Texans.

Force them to follow the procedures already in place.

Lets see them file a credible environmental impact statement, one that shows they have the capacity to control an oil spill.

If there is insufficient reason to change the behaviour of previous decades,
it will not change.

I agree that there are plenty of existing rules that are being broken
(mostly with the tacit or even active approval of the "regulatory bodies")
but without a powerful incentive, they are simply going to carry on doing
the same profitable thing that they've always done: ignore anything that
tries to get in their way.

This is one case where a moratorium should be used and which should last
until the requisite proofs (documents and actions) are in place, not just
settling for promises that "problems will be addressed".

:shrug:

The existing rules can be enforced by the executive unilaterally.

> The existing rules can be enforced by the executive unilaterally.

"Can" and "will" are two different words.

:shrug:

An executive order=last resort if the courts won't budge.

Aren't there provisions in the WTO and other trade agreements that give corporations a certain amount of power to supersede domestic laws?

I seem to remember some cases involving land disputes where the domestic law was clear but the local people lost because NAFTA superseded their domestic law.

I just hope against hope it isn't true. :(