In response to the Gulf oil spill, Interior Secretary Salazar recommended a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs as well as an immediate halt to drilling operations on the 33 permitted wells*. Also stated was that “the recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.”
This moratorium is more harmful to the Gulf workers than the spill itself. As a result, a Louisiana rig company, Hornbeck Offshore Services sued on behalf of all the people in the industry whose economic survival is at stake.
On Tuesday, Federal judge Martin Feldman overturned the administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, singling out Salazar’s central role in tampering with evidence obtained by the peer-review of the 7 experts. The final review with which the experts agreed was then modified and never agreed to by the experts. Here are the experts’ comments.
*The experts agreed upon
In addition, Secretary Salazar recommends a temporary pause in all current drilling operations for a sufficient length of time to perform additional blowout preventer function and pressure testing and well barrier testing for the existing 33 permitted exploratory wells currently operating in deepwater in the Gulf of Mexico.
As Michelle Malkin puts it, “Salazar lied. Salazar committed fraud. Salazar sullied the reputations of the experts involved and abused his authority”.