The Obama administration has filed its appeal to District Court Judge Martin Feldman's decision blocking the administration's temporary ban on new exploratory drilling in water deeper than 500 feet. The deepwater drilling moratorium, announced in May, would have impacted 33 projects. Feldman announced his decision on June 22.
In replying Tuesday to Judge Feldman’s order, the Interior Department, joined by the Justice Department, stated that the continued suspension of drilling was required because continued operations without new safety measures threatened irreparable harm to the marine and coastal environment across the gulf. The government also said that the BP oil spill had taxed the resources available to respond to and clean up the mess and that a second blowout would be impossible to address.
“Because this deepwater spill has been impossible to fully contain,” the government reply said, “Interior had to take immediate action to minimize the risk of another spill, especially while efforts to contain and clean up this one are ongoing. The stakes are even higher now that it is hurricane season.”
The Interior Department, which oversees oil and gas exploration on public lands and offshore, is charged with the “prudent and safe” management of those resources, the court filing said.
“A short-term suspension of deepwater drilling while safety regulations are updated is necessary to achieve that goal,” the document stated.
In an interesting twist, the administration has decided against seeking an expedited review of Feldman's decision. Their appeal brief isn't due until the second week of August, after which the plantiffs who sought to overturn the moratorium will have an opportunity to respond. The Times-Picayune of New Orleans explains the likely rationale:
Blaine LeCesne, a civil procedure professor at Loyola Law School who has been following the case, said that the government may be seeking to use the slow appeals process to its advantage because it knows that energy companies are unlikely to resume prospecting for oil in the Gulf while they run the risk that they could be shut down again. "They can accomplish a de facto moratorium by dragging out the process," LeCesne said.
LeCesne said that the court could decide on its own to hear the full appeal on an expedited basis because an important public policy is at stake, or Hornbeck could request fast-track consideration.
The Department of Justice, which is representing the Interior Department in court, did not respond to an e-mail query about why it hasn't asked for expedited consideration, but it says in a court filing that it reserves the right to seek emergency consideration "if it becomes aware that drilling operations will commence immediately at any of the rigs affected by the suspension decisions."
That last paragraph seems to be the key: right now, even though the moratorium has been blocked, no companies are actually conducting drilling that would have been suspended by the moratorium. If such drilling were to resume, the administration would likely seek an emergency order reinstating the ban. Unless that happens, however, there there is no pressing need to expedite the process.