On May 30, 2010 a 6 month moratorium on all deepwater offshore drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf was declared by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. The limitation was in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.
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On May 27 the DOI issued a press release stating that Salazar would issue a 6 month moratorium on drilling in the area.[1] In a May 30 announcement of the limitation Salazar said:
| “ | The six month moratorium on deepwater drilling will provide time to implement new safety requirements and to allow the Presidential Commission to complete its work... Deepwater production from the Gulf of Mexico will continue subject to close oversight and safety requirements, but deepwater drilling operations must safely come to a halt. With the BP oil spill still growing in the Gulf, and investigations and reviews still underway, a six month pause in drilling is needed, appropriate, and prudent.[2] | ” |
The moratorium was to impact 33 deepwater drilling sites, less than 1% of the 3,600 oil and natural gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.[3]
The Obama administration assembled a panel to advise his administration on how to address offshore drilling in the wake of the spill. The group have stated that Salazar's May 27 report to Obama portrayed their approval of the moratorium, they claim that the panel reviewed a previous draft of the document with bans only on new drilling in water deeper than 1,000 feet.[4][5]
Louisiana officials also expressed concern that the moratorium would further harm the economies of coastal communities.[6] The oil industry employs about 58,000 Louisiana residents and has created another 260,000 oil-related jobs, accounting for about 17 percent of all Louisiana jobs.[6] Following the one-year lifting of the ban, in July 2011 The Heritage Foundation's Robert Bluey reported at Scribe that deepwater drilling permits were down 71% from their historical monthly average of 5.9 permits per month, while shallow-water permits were off 34% from their historical 7.1 monthly average permits.[7]
Soon after, Hornbeck Offshore Services, a company with financial interests in deepwater drilling, filed suit in the Eastern District of Louisiana District Court seeking an injunction to bar enforcement. Judge Martin Feldman issued a decision for Hornbeck on Tuesday, June 22, 2010, granting a preliminary injunction, barring enforcement of the order.[8]
The White House appealed the injunction. On July 8 the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, ruled against a stay of moratorium, saying the administration failed to show how it would be irreparably harmed if the stay was not granted. The court also said that the administration also "made no showing that there is any likelihood that drilling activities will be resumed pending appeal."[9]
Salazar has indicated that the Department of the Interior will "issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."[10][11]
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