The Obama administration lost a legal skirmish when a judge refused to extend ban on deepwater oil drilling imposed after the worst spill in U.S. history. A federal judge in New Orleans rejected a request to allow the six-month ban to stand while the government appeals his decision.
Judge Martin Feldman issued a brief order denying the stay request, pointing to his previous ruling that criticized the ban as arbitrary, far-reaching and unjustified given the impact on thousands of oil industry workers and communities. The government do not like the decision of Feldman. The government imposed the moratorium after a well owned by BP Plc ruptured on April 20, unleashing millions of gallons of crude into the sea, one of the biggest environmental catastrophes to hit the United States.
Obama administration has put ban after oil spill in the Gulf. The spill has shut down rich fishing grounds, threatened the Gulf Coast’s tourism industry, tarred beaches and killed hundreds of turtles and birds and dozens of dolphins. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told that the government was aware of the moratorium’s impact on the Gulf Coast economy.
He added that the ban was necessary “until we get to a level where we can provide a sense of safety to the American people that drilling can in fact continue.” It is fact that the spill has undermined investor confidence in BP, a staple of British pension funds, as estimated clean-up costs soar. The British energy giant has seen its shares lose almost half their value since the spill.
