Hey , whatdya know, Ronny Reagan appointee on the Supreme Court Come through for the old nutbar regime

           I guess the old dinosaur republicans just flexed their appointee muscles, Imagine having the 'BIGGEST POSSIBLE WORLD ALTERING ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER" just off your coast ,with OIL RIGS flying flags from countries all over the world , & not subject to your laws , because the Big Oil are Powerful enough to tell your Prez to basically go screw himself...........Well that's what just happened. Which just goes to show .Business runs the planet & not the puppets ,you think are in power,.the Bush family goes way back in history ,.way back,...& it looks like their masters have collectively won out over the present day Prez, who it seems does not have any power. It sure gives more validity to the rumours that little George W was doing "what he was told" by big business, that big business also had it's puppeteer Dick Cheney still pulling strings........and so Freedom you see is an illusion,They can pollute your waters & ruin your lives, and the Apathetic Group that is the Voters ( or should I say ,lack of Voters) will just shut up and watch as the real powers that be, tell us all ,'How it's going to Be'

          

NEW ORLEANS/WASHINGTON - A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked the Obama administration's ban on deepwater drilling, complicating its efforts to improve the safety of offshore oil operations after the worst spill in U.S. history.

The White House said it would immediately appeal the judge's ruling, issued in New Orleans. Oil companies involved in offshore drilling operations had challenged the government's six-month moratorium.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that most Americans still support offshore drilling, despite watching a huge slick from BP Plc's Gulf of Mexico oil spill devastate fragile wetlands and communities along the U.S. Gulf coast.

The possible scale of the ecological catastrophe was underscored when U.S. scientists said as much as one million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the spill, enough to deplete oxygen and create a dead zone.

If such dead zones were linked to the spill they could ultimately add to BP's mounting costs.

The 64-day-old disaster has shattered investor confidence in BP, which has seen its stock price slashed in half since the start of the crisis. The British energy giant's London share price tumbled to its lowest level in 13 years on Tuesday.

After the BP well ruptured on April 20, spewing millions of gallons of crude, President Barack Obama imposed the ban on deepsea drilling while officials checked that other wells were operating safely.

In granting a request by more than a dozen oil services companies for the ban to be overturned, Judge Martin Feldman challenged its "immense scope."

The Interior Department, which oversees offshore drilling, said despite the ruling, the firms still had to meet new safety and environmental rules before they could resume operations.

Expanding offshore drilling was among Obama's proposals to revamp U.S. energy policy. He hoped it would generate support from Republicans for more controversial aspects of his plans to fight climate change.

But he shelved that plan after the spill and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama believed that "continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense." The administration will probably ask for a stay of the court ruling as it pursues its appeal.

The court's decision was a victory for offshore energy producers like BP, Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell. They have been hamstrung by the ban, and are considering relocating their giant rigs to other basins like Brazil.

Shares in oil drilling companies briefly spiked after the ruling but dipped again when the Obama administration said it would appeal. The S&P energy sector fell 1.3 per cent.

BP's London-listed shares hit their lowest level since February 1997 on Tuesday, dropping more than 5 per cent before coming off lows. U.S.-listed shares closed down 2.14 per cent at $29.68. They have not traded around these levels since 1996.

In London, BP's shares have fallen 32 per cent in June alone and are on track to suffer their worst month since at least 1965, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.

GREEN GROUPS FURIOUS

The court ruling infuriated U.S. environmental groups. The Sierra Club said it would join the Obama administration in appealing it and called the ruling "a slap in the face to the communities that have been hit hard by this tragedy."

The spill has dealt a severe blow to the U.S. Gulf Coast's tourism and fishing industries and soiled large parts of a 650 km coastline from Louisiana to Florida.

But the ruling was welcomed by Gulf Coast residents whose livelihoods depend on the oil industry.

"It takes away the uncertainty. It's going to get some people back to work immediately," said Tony Frickey, site supervisor at the Venice Port Complex in Venice, Louisiana.

BP said it had captured 25,830 barrels (4,106,641 litres) of oil from the ruptured well on Monday, the highest amount yet. Between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels a day are gushing from the well, according to U.S. government estimates.

Despite the spill, 56 per cent of Americans believe offshore drilling is necessary for the United States to produce its own energy and not rely on other countries, while 38 per cent believe it is a bad idea, according to the Reuters poll.

The poll also found about three-quarters of Americans believe neither BP nor the government responded quickly enough to the disaster.

The Obama administration has walked a tightrope in responding to public outrage over the spill and defending its own handling of the crisis against criticism that the relief effort has been too slow and ineffective.

Much of this criticism has come from local governments on the front line.

Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish in southern Louisiana, said the Interior Department had ordered a halt to dredging operations aimed at creating a sand berm as a barrier to the spreading crude.

"We are being required to move our dredging site 3.2 kms farther off our barrier coast, causing us to lose precious time in our fight," he wrote in a letter to Obama.

© Copyright (c) Reuters

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/court+overturns+Obama+drilling/3185340/story.html#ixzz0rdbS8atS

           ......................................ps: Is the Yacht Race Over Yet ?.......hahahahha Now if this Prez does or ever did have any power then he should blatantly over rule the court , the same way his predeccesor Used it.......................     -HF&RV-

                            ..Btw: Do as Your Told.................and pay your tax's please..........lol