Offshore Drilling Ban Fight Heats Up

Think the government’s temporary six-month ban on offshore drilling is a done deal? Think again. Steven Newman, president of Transocean Ltd., the company that owns the oil rig that was at the center of the BP oil spill disaster, says the temporary ban’s time frame is “arbitrary,” and wants the offshore drilling industry to be able to go back to work as soon as possible, according to The New York Daily News.

New Orleans federal judge Martin Feldman is deliberating whether or not to overturn the ban. Feldman says he’ll likely make a decision by Wednesday. White House officials say the temporary ban is needed to study how to make offshore drilling safer, following the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion April 20 in which 11 workers died, setting off the BP oil spill that has gushed an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico daily. But others say the world wants and needs the oil from offshore drilling, the ban is hurting industry and putting people out of work.

“This is an unprecedented industry-wide shutdown. Never before has the government done this,”

Carl Rosenblum, the attorney representing a group of companies that provide boats and equipment to the offshore drilling industry in the lawsuit to overturn the offshore drilling ban, said, according to The New York Daily News.