About that oil and gas decision I just mentioned --

This was in the Washington Examiner.

Federal judge to Salazar: Stop stalling drilling permits
By: Mark Tapscott

Federal District Judge Martin Feldman today gave President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar 30 days to act on five applications seeking permits to drill in the Gulf of Mexico submitted months ago by a Louisiana firm.

In issuing the directive to the government, Feldman, who sits on the District Court for the Eastern District of Louisian, noted that "it is undisputed that before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, permits were processed, on average, in two weeks’ time. In stark contrast, the five permits at issue have been pending from four to some nine months."

The permits were sought by Ensco Offshore, which is based in Broussard, LA. Virtually no new drilling has occurred in the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, despite the fact the U.S. depends upon drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico for roughly a third of its oil and natural gas.

When that third isn't produced, it has to be replaced and that means more OPEC oil being imported by the U.S. and more of our dollars going to the international cartel. Unfortunately, Feldman doesn't seem optimistic that things are going to improve any time soon:

"It is also undisputed that these delays have put off indefinitely drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Ensco has incurred significantly reduced standby rates on its rigs and has been forced to move some of its rigs to other locations around the world. It is unclear when Gulf drilling will resume. The government’s assurances have been inconsistent."

Read more at the Washington Examiner

23,000 Jobs not that important to the administration

I guess if they knew the total reported would be 500,000 they figured 23,000 was just a drop in the bucket, of oil that is.  I found this at Gateway Pundit who credited the Wall Street Journal (but the link went toYahoo and AP).

Gov't: 23K workers affected by Gulf oil drill ban

A six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico would directly put more than 9,000 people out of work and indirectly affect another 14,000 jobs, according to a memo from the nation's top drilling regulator.

The federal document, which weighed the economic impact and alternatives to the ban, was sent to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on July 10 by Michael Bromwich.

Salazar issued a moratorium in June, but it was struck down by a federal judge in New Orleans after oil and gas drilling interests said it wasn't justified following the Gulf oil spill.

The Obama administration issued a new moratorium July 12 — two days after the memo — that stressed new evidence of safety concerns. The White House hopes the revised ban will pass muster with the courts.

The moratoriums were put in place following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion April 20 that killed 11 people. Millions of gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf after the rig sank.

Some energy experts, engineering consultants and Gulf Coast leaders have joined Big Oil to ask Salazar to change his mind. Drilling was safe before the BP spill, they said, and Gulf communities that depend on the industry were suffering unfairly.

Interior Department spokesman Matt Lee-Ashley said the agency has been very clear that the economic impacts of the moratorium would need to be addressed and noted the Obama administration secured an agreement with BP to set up a $100 million fund for affected rig workers.

"In light of the current risks of deepwater drilling as illustrated by the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and the potential impacts of another spill, the moratorium is necessary and appropriate. With that said, the worst-case economic impact estimates from three months ago have not been realized. The reality on the ground suggests that the impacts are less than we initially projected as a potential worst-case scenario," Lee-Ashley said.

The reality on the ground is that the  entire economy of the Gulf Coast has been adversely affected.  Will this help anyone but the rig workers?  They are only a small part of an economy based on oil drilling.

Fudging the data to fit the agenda

You may have heard this on the news yesterday. I saw it in several places. This report is from Gateway Pundit.

Oh My!… Team Obama Fudged Report to Push Their Oil Drilling Moratorium

Posted by Jim Hoft

We saw these radicals withhold and manipulate information during the health care debate… Now we find out they’re doing the same thing with the nation’s energy supply…

Team Obama fudged a report to support their drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico.

A group of oil drilling experts claimed that the Obama Administration misrepresented their views in order to put a hold on drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Click here to read the rest.

Job Loss, an unintended consequence of the oil spill "fix"

When you shut down all drilling in the gulf you are creating an extreme economic disaster. Those of us who live on the Texas and Louisiana coast are well aware of this.
This is from the Wall Street Journal.

A Second Oil Disaster

The deep water drilling moratorium threatens Gulf state economies.

It's too early to know how far-reaching the economic consequences of the BP oil spill will be for the Gulf's seafood, tourism and related industries. What is clear is that the Obama Administration's response to the spill—in particular, its six-month deep water drilling moratorium—is threatening to make the Gulf's economic problems far worse.

The Administration might be forgiven for imposing a drilling moratorium in the early, panicked days following the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Less coherent was President Obama's announcement at the end of May extending that moratorium for six months in water deeper than 500 feet.

The link is here, but it may be behind a pay wall.