Drilling Moratorium Stays, Feds Tell Oil Spill Commission

WASHINGTON — The top federal offshore oil drilling regulator is telling the presidential oil spill commission that the temporary halt to deepwater drilling will remain in place for a few more months.

The Interior Department issued the moratorium after the deadly April 20 BP oil rig explosion. It was overturned in court and reissued on July 13.

Louisiana officials and residents have pleaded with the oil spill commission to do something about the moratorium. The presidential panel asked Interior officials whether they had any say in the matter and whether individual rigs could get exceptions.

The nation's top drilling regulator, Michael Bromwich, says he will propose a replacement for the moratorium by Halloween and leans against exceptions.

Comments

[tacevad]

04:34 PM on 08/24/2010

So some are crying that thousands of jobs are on hold in the gulf I get that, but did they have the same concerns for the millions of lost jobs in 2008?

[DismayedRepub]

05:23 PM on 08/24/2010

Absolutely! They are not "on hold". These jobs are gone for years, many years.

[tacevad]

05:27 PM on 08/24/2010

quite possibly forever if Big Oil can't get it's act together and provide for safety. There was a giant uproar from those who shoveled horsesh*t when the Automobile came around, the smart ones learned to fix cars. Green energy is the future like it or not.

[PolicyWonkette]

04:28 PM on 08/24/2010

Latest from Pro Publica

Local Officials: Lack of Oxygen Likely Killing Thousands of Fish in the Gulf
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/local-officials-lack-of-oxygen-likely-killing-thousands-of-fish-in-the-gulf

[patman77]

03:42 PM on 08/24/2010

so when they gonna kill that spill?

[DismayedRepub]

03:17 PM on 08/24/2010

The problem with this is that these oil rigs are very expensive to operate, to the tune of a half million dollars per day. Operators will move them to places where they can drill and produce. Although this is a six month moratorium it will be years before they come back to the Gulf if at all. If you are Gulf Roughneck you better start thinking about another line of work. BP’s $20B isn’t going to last forever.

[Cacey]

03:49 PM on 08/24/2010

Good post and honestly framed. Many of us have worked for years in fields that no longer exist and have had to use whatever abilities we've learned in new areas and often in new parts of the country and world.

[DismayedRepub]

04:18 PM on 08/24/2010

My girl friend’s father worked in the oil fields off the California coast. This is hard, dirty, and dangerous work. It’s tough on the families too. My hat is off to you sir. I wish you the best.

[kenhamlett]

02:51 PM on 08/24/2010

But, stay tuned folks. The moratorium will be lifted by our first black -- but not green -- President. The industry will make some conciliatory gesture with respect to safety rules (then not follow them), and the President will use it as cover not only to lift the moratorium in the Gulf, but also to reinstate his permission for drilling off the east coast. I have always said the politician that Barack Obama most resembles is George W. Bush. Same wars, same economy, same secrecy, same egocentric strut, and the same contempt for the environment! Too bad -- another opportunity lost!

[StopThePlanet]

03:18 PM on 08/24/2010

The thing that throws people off is his mastery of the English language. With Obama I don't think it is outright comtempt but just indifference. The net effect is still the same though.

[PWM]

02:10 PM on 08/24/2010

See Bush's environmental crimes http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200409/bush_record_print.asp

[poliguy70130]

12:42 PM on 08/24/2010

It is interesting how the same "Louisiana officials" who blame the federal government for not forseeing the possibility of the BP spill, turn around and blame the feds for issuing this moratorium. This moratorium will allow the government time to ensure that there isn't another potential flawed rig sitting in the gulf. I'd be willing to bet that if the feds removed the moratorium and another disaster occured, these same officials would be the first on the scene to blame the federal government. Additionally, it is abosultely ridiculous that people are trying to claim that this is a "job killing moratorium". This is yet another lie spread by people who think the oil industry should be allowed drill in an unregulated manner. Despite all the scare tactics and lies, the moratorium does not shut down drilling in the gulf, as the proponents of free for all drilling would have us believe. Are we to also believe that after the moratorium is lifted, the oil companies knowing that there is oil out there, are going to stay away and not drill. Honestly, this assertion stretches the bounds of the imagination. If the oil companies know that there is oil in a specific location, and they can get to it, they are going to drill. Even if they have to wait a few months. Further, all those who are quick to complain about job loss, seem to forget to mention the seperate BP compensation fund for rig workers.

[msgirlintn]

04:44 PM on 08/24/2010

poliguy,

You are fanned for a very honest post.

Faved too!

[txrunner]

11:48 AM on 08/24/2010

Got to love it when a President is killing American jobs.

Change we believe in.

[pammiethekid]

01:48 PM on 08/24/2010

Got to love the ignorance of some citizens.

[PWM]

02:09 PM on 08/24/2010

What jobs? Cleaning up oil is a job we can do without.

[banker67]

10:29 AM on 08/24/2010

Without regulation, we have the BP disasters. 2 + 2 = 4
Let BP pay all those out-of-work oil jockeys, and let's start blaming the real villains -- BP executives, directors and shareholders.
BP created this mess by willfully and with great legal deliberation ignoring hundreds of serious safety violations, causing workers to die and an entire regional economy to tumble.
The jobs of a few thousand oil workers are not worth the lives of their co-workers and the livelihoods of millions of Gulf-coast residents; we won't even mention the environmental holocaust.
Big Oil has all the money in the world and has wielded its phenomenal economic and political power to flood our country with oil-powered machines. I believe Big Oil has worked hard to squash all alternative sources of energy by buying up patents, bullying lenders into shunning promising alternative energy producers, bribing public officials and instigating the wars that kill our spouses, siblings, parents and children, and bankrupt our nation.
We fight endless wars to get oil so a few hundred Houston billionaires can buy yet another castle in Switzerland.
No matter how much they dislike sharing unemployment with all their coastal neighbors, oil workers should be the first to demand the strictest enforcement of safety standards and absolute corporate obedience to American law.
Stand up for your neighbors and your nation instead of polishing the anchors on the billionaires' yachts.

[drwtsn]

06:17 PM on 08/24/2010

Fanned. I would think that a lot more people made their living off of the "natural" bounties of the Gulf Coast (seafood, tourism, etc.) than made their living by working on oil rigs. I am a very big fan of Gulf seafood, but it will be a long time before I eat any more of it.

[BannedNBoston]

07:03 PM on 08/24/2010

Hi Banker67,
Check this out.
What we need is 100% ethanol to power the cars we have now.
They can adapted.
Why E-85 so the petroleum companies run at least 15%....

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/901.html

[Kenz300]

10:28 AM on 08/24/2010

The legacy of GW Bush and his oil and coal friendly policies.

The 25 years of deregulation by the Republican party has brought
us the Gulf oil spill, the Wall Street melt down and one of the biggest mine
disasters in memory. Now we are recalling 500,000 eggs.

So much for deregulation and self policing by industry.

And they want to be put in charge again.

They ran the country into a ditch and we were loosing 750,000 jobs
a month when they left office and threw the keys to the next guy
and said "I hope you Fail".

What a bunch of selfish, self centered, losers.

Democrats need to get fired up.”

[maslin]

02:17 PM on 08/24/2010

'So much for deregulation and self policing by industry.'

Yep. That worked great!

[msgirlintn]

04:46 PM on 08/24/2010

Kenz,

So true and so fanned.

[switchrat666]

10:16 AM on 08/24/2010

One moe Obama failure 100K lost jobs way to go chief !!!!

[gwyelohi]

11:17 AM on 08/24/2010

Jobs cleaning up oil spills aren't really that great. Fishermen, the tourist industry and others whose jobs are constantly at risk without better assurances of "safe" oil drilling probably feel it's better to be safe than sorry. The oil industy has now "proven" that their shortcuts on safety for increased profit can be a disaster. Any prudent government would want assurances it won't happen again before they allow them to drill in deep water again. Personally, I think the "Chief" is absolutely right on this one.

[blurredmolly]

01:19 PM on 08/24/2010

This is all Reagan's fault.

[JerryAguy]

09:52 AM on 08/24/2010

Those rigs don't just sit there and wait, they will be moved to a place where they can be used like Brazil and those jobs lost will not be back anytime soon. More oil to import also, that should really help the economy.

[cambo]

08:46 AM on 08/24/2010

Stop the drilling!!! At the very least, let's go eletric powered by solar and wind and let's reduce this smoggy crap we breathe and live in.

[bighat]

09:31 AM on 08/24/2010

Solar and wind only survive because of subsidies.

Crude oil goes into a thousand different products all profitable.and pay lots of taxes

[pammiethekid]

09:37 AM on 08/24/2010

Oil companies can't cut corners and wreak havoc without paying the price. If you support oil drilling in the US, you'd better get on board with regulation and this sort of moratorium to run checks on the rigs. Because another blow like this one in the gulf and there will be NO drilling in the US. Even conservatives won't tolerate it.

[drwtsn]

06:22 PM on 08/24/2010

Solar and wind seem to be doing pretty good in China. Whose economy is doing better?

[JerryAguy]

09:49 AM on 08/24/2010

Have ya priced a solar power setup capable of running your home? or bought one?

[Cacey]

03:53 PM on 08/24/2010

Actually, I almost bought a solar powered home a few years ago and now wish I had. It was affordable and worked quite well. And my hybred car is teriffic as well.

[aligatorhardt]

08:18 AM on 08/24/2010

My thanks to officials for keeping the moratorium on drilling in place. The Gulf needs a period of healing to allow bacterial action to remove oil and oxygen levels need to rebound. Another spill at this time would create severe fish stock degradation. There is no evidence that oil companies have improved their standards of operation. We have not seen new regulatory standards in place. This industry is out of control and the risks to health and jobs of fishing and tourism are too great to allow such haphazard operations. Are new blowout preventors able to shear newer hardened piping? There is no evidence that any improvements have been made.

[bighat]

09:36 AM on 08/24/2010

So you would like the entire gulf coast to be basically abandoned because there are no jobs.

Oil workers are among the highest paid workers and many people want them laid off because they do not like oil companies yet they still drive their cars, burn candles, I would bet even their computers has components that are petroleum based as are many things in their homes such as PVC pipe.

Want to get rid of oil companies then stop using anything made from petroleum. Though you maybe shocked at the number of things made from petroleum.

[pammiethekid]

09:44 AM on 08/24/2010

BP brought this on, proving beyond doubt that they cannot be trusted to put safety before cutting corners. The Obama administration would have been happy not to step in, but BP proved it necessary. If another rig were to blow right now because we didn't take the time to check operations, there would be no way back for the support of offshore drilling in the court of public opinion.

[Papa Swamp]

08:07 AM on 08/24/2010

Wonder if it will be lifted after November....