Excerpt from Bloomberg:
U.S. in Contempt Over Gulf Drill Ban, Judge Rules
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins – Feb 3, 2011 11:53 AM PT
The Obama Administration acted in contempt by continuing its deepwater-drilling moratorium after the policy was struck down, a New Orleans judge ruled.
Interior Department regulators acted with “determined disregard” by lifting and reinstituting a series of policy changes that restricted offshore drilling, following the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, U.S. District Judge, Martin Feldman of New Orleans ruled yesterday.
“Each step the government took following the court’s imposition of a preliminary injunction showcases its defiance,” Feldman said in the ruling.
“Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the re-imposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium, and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt,” Feldman said.
President Barack Obama’s administration first halted offshore exploration in waters deeper than 500 feet in May, after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the Louisiana coast led to a subsea blowout of a BP Plc well that spewed more than 4.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
full story here: U.S. in Contempt Over Gulf Drill Ban, Judge Rules
h/t to WUWT reader paddylol
Well let me see, a Federal Court has also ruled that Obamacare bill is unconstitutional; which means there is NO Obamacare bill for the Congress to repeal; Obamacare is kaput.
So now let’s see how the contempt of court rulings go in this since “The White House” which I take to mean President Obama; have said “so what?” to the Court’s ruling. The court even cited Obama’s own words (as a Constitutional law expert and former Professor of Constitutional law) that establish that even obama can see that the law must be unconstitutional because of the very terms that Obama insisted be in there; while asserting that they couldn’t be removed from the bill, and leave ANY bill.
There IS NO Obamacare bill; it’s gone.
@Gary Young: No need for a stay on something that has been declared void.
If our Federal Government believes they are free to ignore decisions by Federal Courts, what reason do we have to believe they would not similarly ignore rulings by the Supreme Court itself? (Or work around them).
The EPA has already ignored the intent of Congress by circumventing control of carbon.
This will become a Constitutional crisis, though we don’t know it yet.
As has been pointed out, your analogy is somewhat lacking. Since Cuba is allowed to sell drilling rights to wells off of Florida leaving us no recourse should anything go wrong, a proper way to portray your analogy would go like this: We outlaw any use of fire in our house including gas water heaters, gas stoves, gas furnaces, while allowing your neighbors to run through your house with lit torches, all because part of your house once burned down due to extreme negligence on your part.
Deepwater horizon was tragic, but one failure is not a valid sample for the safety/danger levels of a particular endeavor. If this were so, we would have stopped exploring space after Apollo 1 caught on fire on the pad.
“”””” Jeroen B. says:
February 3, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Wait.
I think someone need to get their heads (and special interest registers) throughly checked/audited.
Allow me an analogy to see if I correctly understand this:
If a house burnt down because people ran through the house with flaming torches , and subsequently, the local authority banned the use of flaming torches indoors, which is then lifted because the flaming torch industry lobbied for it, then reimposed because it’s REALLY NOT SAFE to use flaming torches indoors, the authority is “in contempt” ? “””””
Well I do believe that people have run through indoors, with flaming torches, and not only not get stopped but got cheered along; but they didn’t burn the place down; happens every two and four years at the Olympic games.
Monster truck shows, and WWF wrestling fire off flaming torches indoors all the time; with impunity.
You see burning the house down is what we seek to prevent; not the running through with a flaming torch.
Pull My Finger said “It’s an old conundrum, business cut costs and play chicken with disasters, government regulates and taxes businesses to death… which result in more cost-cutting… etc…”
Geesh, PMF . . . You got to quite pulling your own finger!!!
Jeroen B. says:
February 3, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Wait.
I think someone need to get their heads (and special interest registers) throughly checked/audited.
Allow me an analogy to see if I correctly understand this:
If a house burnt down because people ran through the house with flaming torches , and subsequently, the local authority banned the use of flaming torches indoors, which is then lifted because the flaming torch industry lobbied for it, then reimposed because it’s REALLY NOT SAFE to use flaming torches indoors, the authority is “in contempt” ?
Well, not exactly – in this case the “authority” banned the use of houses, whether there were flaming torches in them or not.
Forget about law or “protect and defend”. History shows us what every elitist dictatorship has done when a system of law or democracy is in their way. Whether it is fascism, communism, junta etc., the tactics are the same. Use the law to obtain control, ignore the law when it goes against you, and finally use force to maintain power.
Our guys need to start drilling, now, and call their bluff or force the use of force to show them for what they are. The leftists are street fighters and conservatives want to fight by the Marquis de Queensbury rules. The only reason fascism beat communism in Europe in the last century was the fascists were better at the street fighting and fought dirtier than the commies. They also murdered way less people than the communists. The only ones to beat the Russian communists at murder were the Chinese communists.
Hans Sennholz an Economics Professor at Grove City College in PA, used to warn about the “Coming of Caesar.” The behavior of this administration has a lot of trappings of the original “Boys from Italy.” He’s daring Congress and the Judiciary to take him to task, thus far, he’s far from losing. Lots of legal rulings, lots of no action. Talk and writing are cheap, it’s the actions that mark the men and women who matter.
If those of us who care keep working on the education of the populous we may yet stem the tide. Woe is us if we sit on the couch and bitch at the TV. /rant
Jeroen B. says:
February 3, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Wait.
…because it’s REALLY NOT SAFE to use flaming torches indoors, the authority is “in contempt” ?”
Let’s try a different version of your analogy:
A guy lives in a glass house. He decides he would like a new window in his house. So, ignoring all the safety warnings, regulations and proper procedure, he goes outside and grabs a stone and throws it through the wall. His house collapses.
A local authority comes through and takes ALL the stones in the entire village and goes on TV immediately “Look, I kicked some ass, and I saved the village!”,
and then a judge says “hey, stop taking all the stones, that dumbass in the glass house was the problem, give them back”
and the authority gives back some stones,
but then raids all the houses in the night to steal them back and then goes on TV to say “WE SAVED THE VILLAGE FROM ITSELF!!! ”
and the judge goes “no you didn’t, you stole all the stones after we told you not to so you could go on TV”
and the authority goes “BUT THE VILLAGE!!! ”
and the judge goes “no, you’re in contempt of my orders which are part of the system of checks and balances to protect the people from their elected officials in exactly situations like this, the PEOPLE, not the houses in the village”
and the authority will go “BUT THE VILLAGE!!! ”
There, that is a much, much better analogy.
The Obama administration doesn’t simply have contempt of court. They have contempt of the United States itself I fear.
George E. Smith says:
There IS NO Obamacare bill; it’s gone.
———————————————————————————–
Obamacare is, at the least, on life-support until the fat-ladies sing (SCOTUS hands down its decision).
Before SCOTUS is consulted, the appellate court may have its say of yea or neigh, although
Virginia Attorney General Urges Supreme Court to Hear Health Law Challenge Now
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/03/virginia-attorney-general-urges-supreme-court-hear-health-law-challenge/
I agree with Smokey (1:22 p); when the Administration tramples over the law, this is very serious. About as close to treason as one can get. But then our President has dual allegiance. His father was a British Commonwealth, then Kenyan citizen. Individuals with dual allegiances are not supposed to even run for President. What’s up with that? And who continues to refuse to discuss the truth of this reality. How many laws trampled, how many untruths, how many government takeovers does it take until everyone wakes up?
“Robert A says: February 3, 2011 at 1:46 pmIf our Federal Government believes they are free to ignore decisions by Federal Courts, what reason do we have to believe they would not similarly ignore rulings by the Supreme Court itself? (Or work around them).
The EPA has already ignored the intent of Congress by circumventing control of carbon.
This will become a Constitutional crisis, though we don’t know it yet.”
And Chicago, D.C. and others are circumventing the Supreme Court decision on the right to keep and bear arms. While an unauthorized body, the fed reserve, prints money. We have a constitutional crisis right now and not many notice it.
Combine the drill ban with the general anti-drilling sentiment of this administration and the situation in the middle east, with its potential for oil supply disruption…
We may yet have the decarbonized economy that the greens want, without any cap and tax or other policies being implemented.
George E. Smith says:
February 3, 2011 at 1:53 pm
“”””” Jeroen B. says:
February 3, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Wait.
You see burning the house down is what we seek to prevent; not the running through with a flaming torch.
======================================================
Well, only some George, only some of us. Others value inanimate matter over the quality of life for the general public. There are also some opportunists that have an inordinate fear of a particular molecule called carbon dioxide. They used this tragedy to further their cause. Then, of course, there are those who are of even more suspect character…….
As Latitude pointed out, this moratorium doesn’t ban deep sea drilling. It bans the U.S. from deep sea drilling. Apparently, many feel Cuba sells better the same oil, and Venz and China are more deserving of oil. I wonder, do those countries have anything in common that would cause the U.S. to be separated from them?
Robert A says:
The EPA has already ignored the intent of Congress by circumventing control of carbon.
—————————————————————————————
The EPA can be faulted for a number of tyrannical actions and regulations, but they are acting on the scientifically ignorant decision by the SCOTUS in Massachusetts v. EPA, which decision declared carbon dioxide to be a pollutant.
Zeke, doesn’t the president already have the ability to shutdown the internet if martial law was declared in an emergency?
I’m looking forward to the Chinese declaring that our territorial waters cease at three miles and drilling up to that line for all it’s worth. After all, it really doesn’t matter who brings the oil to market, except in as far as who gets the production jobs.
There are close to 300 million vehicles in this country that don’t run on green tech. In ten years, with massive investment in green tech, there will still be close to 300 million vehicles in this country that don’t run on green tech.
Bottom line, we need all the oil we can get. One of the biggest crimes in human history was capping one of the most productive oil wells of all time (sure, that’s based on the government’s wild exaggerations of the BP spill size, but still–that was one hell of an oil well that could be producing right now!). Billions of lives depend on civilization’s main energy sources. It’s nothing short of mass murder on an unprecedented scale to impede energy exploration and exploitation and risk a resultant collapse of civilization.
James Sexton says:
February 3, 2011 at 3:27 pm
As Latitude pointed out, this moratorium doesn’t ban deep sea drilling. It bans the U.S. from deep sea drilling.
================================================
Exactly, we’re only hurting ourselves. As long as the oil/crude is there, someone is going to get it and use it.
It’s the same non-sense as banning coal plants in this country. We have the largest coal reserves. Stopping us from burning it will not stop other countries from burning it. We will just mine it and sell it to them.
This is also one of the main reasons China is so “for” global warming legislation.
They know they will need more oil/crude, if they can slow us down, it’s just more for them.
Somehow these green/enviro whack jobs think moving pollution, oil exploration, etc to another country solves the problem.
In effect Judge Feldman has voided the DOI deepwater drilling regulations. He has broad discretion in deciding how to deal with the contempt. He can order
secretary Salazar to appear in court and ream him a new one. He awarded substantial attorneys fees to the plaintiff. He can supervise the development and promulgation of new permtting rules. He can order DOI to start issuing new drilling permits ASAP to abrogate the ongoing irreparable damage Obama’s minions have caused.
Judge Feldman’s decision is a preview of what Judge Vinson can do if the Obama Administration continues to implement Obamacare after he declared the law unconstitutionally void.
We have ringside seats from which to observe how our President, who believes he is above the law, deals with the wrath of District Judges as he flaunts their decisions. Unless Obama obeys, he could bring down his presidency. I would not bet against the judges.
We might get a rational energy policy yet.
“China takes big lead in CO2 emissions race
February 1, 2011
The Department of Energy released yesterday its estimates for global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy use:
U.S. emissions were 5.42 billion tons, about 17.8% of global emissions (2nd place).
China’s emissions were 7.71 billion tons, about 25.3% of global emissions (1st place).
India has overtaken Russia for third place (1.60 vs. 1.57 billion tons).”
Jim G says:
February 3, 2011 at 2:57 pm
“Robert A says: February 3, 2011 at 1:46 pmIf our Federal Government believes they are free to ignore decisions by Federal Courts, what reason do we have to believe they would not similarly ignore rulings by the Supreme Court itself? (Or work around them).
——————————————————————————
As President Andrew Jackson said of Justice John Marshall: “Now that he has made his decision, let him enforce it.” That pretty much sums up the attitude of the Obama administration…
danj,
Urkel is no Andy Jackson.
Like I’ve said before, when the government ignores the law, what, then, is treason?