Federal Judge Throws Out President Obama's Drilling Rules

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

A judge on Friday threw out Obama administration rules that sought to slow down expedited environmental review of oil and gas drilling on federal land.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled in favor of a petroleum industry group, the Western Energy Alliance, in its lawsuit against the federal government, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

The ruling reinstates Bush-era expedited oil and gas drilling under provisions called categorical exclusions on federal lands nationwide, Freudenthal said.

The government argued that oil and gas companies had no case because they didn't show how the new rules, implemented by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service last year, had created delays and added to the cost of drilling.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=14294717

[annabanana]

1. Now THIS is one where I expect them to appeal.. and FAST.

I hope they do it.

[ChandlerJr]

2. Bad day in court

1st a Clinton appointed judge rules against the individual mandate and now one of Obama's own rules in favor of Big Oil!

[glinda]

3. Judges have no right to be Presidents. This is crap.

[KT2000]

4. Expeditied review

should have been thrown out.

[bahrbearian]

5. Activist Judge

[kelly1mm]

8. Obama appointee. nt

[alp227]

6. When the next oil spill occurs I expect this judge to go out and help clean up n/t

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

7. South Dakota is in the process of changing petroleum drilling oversight...

...got rid of the most experienced geologist (he left the job rather than be forced to move, took a private sector job for "twice the salary") and moved the other two with experience from their base near the oil developments in northwest South Dakota, to Vermillion in the extreme southeast and to Pierre in the middle of the state. That being said, they claim to have hired a mythical, "exprienced PhD" too come in and take oversight of regulatory set up and digitalization of records. of course, it is all due to, "budgetary constraints".

Sounds ripe for fraud to me. Dick Cheney and GW couldn't have hoped for a more dysfunctional oil situation to hop into.

So more bad news for the people and more favors for indiscriminate oil drilling.

[Honeycombe8]

9. The irony is that...the states most likely to be hurt are the ones who don't want...

environmental reviews. Those states make a lot of $$$ from drilling (I'm not knocking making money..but at what cost?), so they want more and more of it, expecting the rest of the country to "fix" the oil spill or other damage. Louisiana, too.

Thing is...the environment isn't contained by state boundaries. The part of the Gulf just south of Louisiana...if you spill there, it spreads to other parts of the Gulf. The environment belongs to us all, and to future generations.