From an AP breaking news alert:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) Judge blocks offshore drilling moratorium imposed by Obama administration after Gulf spill.
It's interesting how the administration is supposed to be so in charge of offshore drilling, yet they can't stop it.
UPDATE
Here's another breaking alert:
WASHINGTON (AP) White House: Administration will appeal ruling against new offshore drilling moratorium.
That was to be expected.
This really isn't that shocking of a news story:
The office of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a friend of the court brief in federal court Monday supporting the removal of President Barack Obama's six-month deepwater drilling moratorium.
A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Monday from companies seeking an end to the moratorium. The ban, instituted by the government last month, halts all drilling in more than 500 feet of water and prevents new permits from being issued.
But it does show us an extreme hypocrisy coming from the right on the oil spill disaster. Jindal has been one of those blasting the government for not having proper oversight and managing these drill sites properly. Now the government wants to stop them so that they can reevaluate, but Republicans like Jindal don't want that. It really is a fascinating conundrum, and shows that above all the game of poltics comes first.
A new ABC/Washington Post poll echoes the results of the CBS poll earlier this week - Americans are waking up on offshore drilling:
Just a quarter of Americans back expanding offshore drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill, and most fault federal regulators for the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Before the spill, the Obama administration lifted the moratorium on drilling in U.S. coastal waters as a way to address the country's energy needs. But most Americans now want fewer offshore wells (31 percent) or the amount kept at current levels (41 percent).
But there is even a more interesting find in this poll:
The new Post-ABC poll reveals a widespread perception that poor federal regulation was at fault in the gulf spill. About 63 percent point a finger at inadequate enforcement of regulations, and 55 percent see an overall weak regulatory structure. Even more, 73 percent, blame BP and its drilling partners for the accident. And the same number are calling the spill a major environmental disaster.
Just the fact that Obama is considering this is ridiculous:
The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.
The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.
I guess Obama is trying to appease his base of Sarah Palin and her ilk.
That's what he said last night. Unfortunately for him it's his own party that is balking at the idea:
Even as Bush called on Congress to cut earmarks in half and announced an executive order cracking down on the projects, Republicans in Congress were sending out a mixed message about what their party really stands for when it comes to pork barrel spending.
In the House, Minority Leader John A. Boehner has called on Democrats to agree to a six-month moratorium on earmarks and new guidelines for approving the spending projects.
Conservatives criticized the idea as too timid and are pushing for GOP members to unilaterally swear off earmarks.
Even a senior GOP appropriator is calling it nothing more than a PR move:
David Hobson (R-Ohio), a senior Republican appropriator, was even more explicit. “I think our guys are searching for a way to get back into the majority,” Hobson said. “It’s kind of an emotional thing they’re trying to do, … it’s a PR move.”
Hobson noted that he was “proud of every earmark” he’s ever put in an appropriations bill in his nine terms in the House.
Wow this is all from the party of "fiscal responsibility". I just love GOP meltdowns.
He is going after the spend happy Republicans.
When House Republicans convene behind closed doors today at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., they have a chance to make two bold moves to restore their reputation for fiscal responsibility. First, they could declare a one-year moratorium on Republican congressional earmarks. Second, they could name earmark reformer Rep. Jeff Flake to a vacancy on the House Appropriations Committee. In fact, they almost surely will do neither.
Instead, during the retreat Republicans are likely to adopt some limitation on earmarks that will have no public impact and will exert no pressure on the earmark-happy Democratic majority. Consideration of Flake's candidacy for Appropriations was postponed until after this week's earmark debate at the Greenbrier. But, content with a half-measure on earmarks, the House Republicans are unlikely to place Flake, an insistent reformer, in the midst of the pork-dispensing appropriators.
