Is a Deepwater Drilling Moratorium Smart?
Government lawyers will be in a federal appeals court in New Orleans today, fighting to reinstate a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. The temporary ban—put in place by President Obama after the BP spill to give a presidential commission time to reevaluate the safety of deepwater drilling—was overturned last month by a federal judge on the grounds that the government hadn’t proved that the economic damage inflicted on the drilling industry by a moratorium was worth the potential safety problems of continued exploration. Administration lawyers will try their luck before a three-judge this afternoon at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The White House—and most environmental groups—responded with outrage after Judge Martin Feldman blocked the drilling moratorium on June 22. They pointed out—rightly, I think—that the clear inability of BP to handle a partially blown underwater well demonstrated that the industry wasn’t able to safely manage the risks of deepwater drilling. As Exxo
