Editorial: Interior right to impose moratorium on offshore drilling

Opinion

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

"Despite legal challenges from industry, complaints from local politicians and bad rulings from unsympathetic judges, the Obama administration has rightly chosen to reaffirm its decision in May to suspend deep-water drilling activities in the Gulf of Mexico. On Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a second moratorium to replace an earlier ban that was tossed out in federal court. It is as strong as the first ban and, if anything, more tightly argued.

Whether the new ban can withstand legal challenges remains to be seen. The important point is that the administration has reaffirmed one of the basic lessons of this mess: that industry claims cannot be accepted at face value. BP was tragically unprepared to deal with this spill; indeed, a new and tighter cap that everyone hopes will stop the leak altogether is only now being installed, 13 weeks after the blowout. Until the industry shows it can drill safely in deep waters, and respond swiftly and surely to an accident, it should not be allowed to go forward with that kind of operation.

Drilling, in short, cannot be resumed on faith alone. Mr. Salazar said he would invite input from industry and the public, and was open to modifying the order. But first, he said, industry must “raise the bar on its practices and answer fundamental questions about deep-water safety, blowout prevention and containment, and oil spill response.”

The original May 27 moratorium banned new deep-water drilling in the gulf and suspended existing operations at 33 exploratory deep-water wells for a period of six months. The new moratorium applies the same restrictions for the same time period, ending Nov. 30, unless the administration decides otherwise."

Get the Story:
Editorial: A New, and Necessary, Moratorium (The New York Times 7/14)

Relevant Documents:
Press Release: Secretary Salazar Issues New Suspensions to Guide Safe Pause on Deepwater Drilling (July 12, 2010) | Secretary Salazar’s Statement Regarding the Moratorium on Deepwater Drilling (June 22, 2010) | Salazar Calls for New Safety Measures for Offshore Oil and Gas Operations; Orders Six Month Moratorium on Deepwater Drilling (May 27, 2010)