House Overturning the Drilling Ban a Good Idea, But Doesn’t Justify the Spill Bill

Nicolas Loris / July 30, 2010

Last week, representatives from the oil, seafood, and tourism industries as well as local politicians and residents of the Gulf organized a rally at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana, to call for an end the Obama Administration’s drilling moratorium.Even after a federal judge overturned the ban, ruling it was arbitrary and capricious, the Administration implemented another ban despite the Gulf’s demand to lift it. Finally, some politicians in Washington are starting to get it:

The House will vote Friday on a measure that would ease the Obama administration’s temporary ban on new deepwater drilling. The legislation, offered as an amendment to a bill that would overhaul the rules for offshore drilling, was added to the House schedule late Thursday after dozens of Democrats from oil-producing states threatened to oppose the overhaul. (more…)