الأربعاء، 23 يونيو 2010

A federal judge who was appointed by then President Ronald Reagan who has owned stock in a number of oil industry related firms decide on the plaintiffs behalf and lifted the ban on offshore oil drilling. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman stated “the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too”.

"If some drilling equipment parts are flawed; is it rational to say all are?" he asked. "Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing."

It can not be determined at this point if the judge still owns any petroleum stocks. His most current court fillings signify he no longer has Transocean stock which he owned previously. The report also disclosed he was not a shareholder in any of the larger firms such as ExxonMobil or BP.

An instantaneous appeal of the ruling is expected from the White House who indicated they were deeply upset with the outcome of the court case. The ban effectively stopped drilling on 33 exploratory wells when it was issued by the Interior Department because of the environmental disaster caused by BP’s massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico from one their offshore platforms.

The ruling was applauded by oil industry executives and heavily criticized by leading environmental activist. The suit was initiated by Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La. whose management were elated with the outcome and were said to be very happy to be able to finally go back to work.

The chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Representative Edward Markey who is a Democrat from Massachusetts strongly disagreed with the ruling. He stated, “This is another bad decision in a disaster riddled with bad decisions by the oil industry. The only thing worse than one oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico would be two oil spill disasters."

The Gulf oil and natural gas industry accounts for approximately 150,000 jobs supporting a vast number of families and interrelated businesses in the area. Presently 11 percent of domestic natural gas is produced here as well as 31 percent of domestic oil. Many local residents strongly supported the ruling due to the dire financial position they have been forced into by the ongoing oil leak.

Federal governmental officials disputed the assumption that the shutdown of oil drilling has or would cause a sharp decline in local economies over the long-term because there are still approximately 3,600 oil and natural gas platforms that are in operation.

1 التعليقات:

  1. While I understand and can appreciate Judge Feldman's line of thinking - one bad X does not spoil the bunch - it turns a blind eye to many of the details of hackneyed "response plans" that the industry seems to have copy-pasted from one another. I remember doing that back in college but I at least had the common sense to change some stuff so it looked original. I also remember the kids that got caught for copy-pasting had to redo the assignment, if they were lucky enough to not get expelled.

    So rather than just lifting this "heavy-handed" moratorium, maybe checking to see that all the other rigs aren't using the same cheat sheet, err, "emergency response plan" is a bit more prudent. If a rig's plan passes, then business can carry on. Yes, they'll lose some money, but aren't those the consequences once you've been caught cheating the system?

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