Judge Blocks Drilling Moratorium

A federal judge has blocked President Obama's moratorium on new offshore drilling projects. The White House plans to appeal the decision:

(June 22) -- A federal judge in New Orleans today overturned President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on any new deep-water drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The White House said the administration would appeal, according to The Associated Press.

The ban on new drilling had been imposed after an April 20 explosion on Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig -- which was run by BP -- set off the country's worst oil spill in history. Since then, the Interior Department has stopped approving any new drilling permits and suspended drilling at 33 wells already exploring for oil in the gulf. The government has said it needs time to do a thorough safety evaluation to ensure that disasters like BP's blast don't happen again.

But Hornbeck Offshore Services, an oil services company based in Louisiana, filed a lawsuit challenging the moratorium. It argues that there's no evidence that continued drilling poses any threat of future oil spills, and that halting such operations could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages. The lawsuit is backed by oil companies, Louisiana's governor and other state officials.

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