WASHINGTON -- Rebuffed twice by the courts, the Obama administration is taking another crack at a moratorium on deep-water drilling, stressing new evidence of safety concerns and no longer basing the moratorium on water depth. But those who challenge the latest ban question whether it complies with a judge's ruling tossing out the first one.
The new order does not appear to deviate much from the original moratorium, as it still targets deep-water drilling operators but defines them in a different way.
Last week, a federal appeals court rejected the government's effort to restore its initial offshore deep-water drilling moratorium, which was issued following the catastrophic Gulf oil spill in April. The moratorium was first blocked last month by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman.
Government lawyers on Monday evening asked the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to lift its order barring the moratorium because the new plan had been filed.
Lawyers also filed papers in U.S. District Court arguing that lawsuits brought by oilfield service companies seeking to block the original moratorium should be dismissed, given the terms of the new moratorium order.
Carl Rosenblum, a lawyer for the plaintiffs who sued to block the moratorium, said they are reviewing the new moratorium and "we have substantial concerns about its consistency with Judge Feldman's order." He wouldn't elaborate or say if they planned to challenge it in court.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he decided to put in place a new moratorium because of "evidence that grows every day of the industry's inability in the deep water to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill and to operate safely."
The new moratorium was panned by industry groups and generally supported by environmentalists.
The Interior Department said that like the original ban, this one applied to most deep-water drilling activities. But the department said the suspensions in the new moratorium "are the product of a new decision by the secretary and new evidence regarding safety concerns, blowout containment shortcomings within the industry, and spill response capabilities that are strained by the BP oil spill."
The new moratorium also establishes a process to gather and analyze new information on safety and response issues, which could allow for identifying conditions to resume certain deep-water drilling activities. And unlike the last moratorium, which applied to waters of more than 500 feet, the new one applies to any deep-water floating facility with blowout preventers.
The National Ocean Industries Association, an industry trade group for offshore production, said that while the new moratorium doesn't apply to anchored facilities using surface blowout preventers, "such facilities are generally used in shallow water, which makes the new suspension glaringly similar, if not even more restrictive than the original moratorium. It is not immediately clear how many facilities will be impacted."
In a Q&A document, the Interior Department said any count represents a snapshot in time. The document said that at the time of the BP spill, there were 36 floating drilling rigs that would have been affected by the new ban. It's unclear whether the new moratorium would be more or less restrictive than the original one.
The offshore industry also complained that while the new moratorium opens the door to lifting the restrictions if industry provides assurance for adequate containment and response, "the problem for industry is that it is unclear what exactly it will take to convince the administration that such capability exists."
In a memo to Michael Bromwich, the new head of the department's agency that oversees offshore drilling, Salazar said the moratorium will give industry time to come up with more effective blowout containment strategies and capabilities for deep-water operations.
"I cannot conclude at this time that deep-water drilling can move forward in a safe and environmentally sound manner," he wrote.
The secretary said the time will also allow the department to develop interim rules to address safety issues in offshore drilling.
He said an additional factor in having the moratorium go through Nov. 30 is that hurricane season runs through that date.
"During this time of year, as we have already seen this year, the ability to contain and respond to a spill is often compromised
