Oil Exploration: Obama administration continues to IGNORE federal judges on drilling ban

This is totally unacceptable. President Obama’s administration really is a regime. How else would you define an Executive Branch of the federal government that has completely ignored federal rulings twice in the past month months? I guess they figure the judges don’t really mean what they say.

We know that a federal judge has ruled the entire 2010 health care legislation unconstitutional and now we have a Department of Interior who is flagrantly ignoring federal court rulings to allow permits to again be issued to companies who want to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

From a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

Federal Judge Martin Feldman ordered the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to act on five pending deep water permit applications within 30 days. The case was brought by Ensco, an offshore driller whose permits have been under review for as long as nine months.

Since finally lifting its blanket ban in October, the Administration has failed to issue a single permit, blaming strained resources and new regulations. Ensco believes, as Judge Feldman wrote, that the “government’s continuous delays are intentional,” part of an effort to use last year’s BP oil spill as an excuse to limit fossil fuel extraction.

Does the rule of law apply to the Obama regime? Ken Salazar is in contempt.

Judge Feldman struck down the Obama Administration’s first drilling moratorium and earlier this month ruled Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in contempt for imposing a second moratorium that showed a “flagrant” disregard for the first ruling.

Where are the liberal/progressive/statists on all of this? They – well a good portion of them – are totally cool with the president ignoring a federal ruling simply because they don’t want any oil drilling at all. There might even be some conservatives who agree, but what kind of slippery slope is this?

Posted in

Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

9 Comments

  1. Murphy on February 24, 2011 at 5:20 am

    Could someone please just arrest this Silly Oblivious Bureaucrat?



  2. Dimsdale on February 24, 2011 at 6:37 am

    If failing to issue the permits is illegal, how illegal is starting operations without the permits (assuming all regulations are otherwise followed)?



  3. NH-Jim on February 24, 2011 at 8:05 am

    One word: Impeachment

    The President refuses to uphold the Constitution he swore an oath to.

     

    To willfully obstruct a Federal Court ruling on Gulf oil ban lift, obstruct Federal Court ruling on unconstitutionality of Health care reform bill, obstruct a federal Court ruling upholding Defense of Marriage Act, to refuse to defend the safety and sovereignty of the nation and its borders, violate the 5th amendment by unlawfully interfering with the management of private companies for the purpose of achieving government control are just 5 of the numerous counts.



  4. johnboy111 on February 24, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    UNTIL THEY ARE OUT OF OFFICE THEY WILL CONTINUE/THEY DO NOT CARE WHAT WE THINK OR SAY…$7 GAS YOU WILL DRIVE THAT STUPID UNSAFE GOLF CART??[THEY HOPE]



  5. BEA on February 24, 2011 at 8:17 pm

    I can't even say I'm surprised. This whole administration behaves this way. Don't feel like paying taxes? Then don't. Want to cram a bill through? Then cram it. Don't want to do your job but instead hide out in a hotel? Then hide. Want to tell other people they should eat healthy but you want to eat ribs? Then eat em. They are going to do what they want because they are know-it-all bullies who have an agenda and no one is going to stop them…or so they think.



  6. dkortebein on February 25, 2011 at 1:25 am

    I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.



  7. Marilyn on February 25, 2011 at 3:56 am

    And let's not forget that the report on further drilling, ordered by the One was changed when it didn't support his agenda.  I can see 2012 from my house.



  8. Tim-in-Alabama on February 25, 2011 at 4:08 am

    Drill, drill, drill. Why do you people want to kill baby dolphins?



  9. RoBrDona on February 25, 2011 at 9:31 am

    Its interesting to see what the backbone of the justification for the anti-drilling, anti-business, activist program actually amounts to. Just for a small test case, I did a quick look at the reasons why the locally plentiful Piping Plover (sea bird) is on the endangered list. According to the Audibon Society: 1) Various species that are found in the wild that eat them. 2) Disturbance by beachgoers, and 3)Hydrolic Changes (rising sea level).  

    I kid you not. This is just a tiny piece of the garbage that passes as science that is being used across the US to keep us from responsibly using any natural resources whatsoever.   



square-oil-well-platform

The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.