NEW ORLEANS - (Mealey's) The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 8 denied a motion to stay pending appeal of a Louisiana federal judge's June 22 ruling enjoining the federal government's six-month moratorium on offshore drilling operations of deep-water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico (Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC, et al. v. Kenneth Lee Salazar, et al., No. 10-30585, 5th Cir.; See July 2010, Page 6).
Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and Secretary Kenneth Salazar and the Minerals Management Service and Acting Director Robert Abbey on June 7 to challenge the six-month moratorium on offshore drilling operations of new and currently permitted deep-water wells imposed by the federal government on May 28.
"The motion for stay pending appeal is denied because the Secretary has failed to demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury if the stay is not granted; he has made no showing that there is any likelihood that drilling activities will be resumed pending appeal," the three-judge panel of Judges W. Eugene Davis, Jerry E. Smith and James L. Dennis said in a two-page per curiam order.
The federal government may apply for emergency relief if it can show that drilling activity has commenced or is about to commence, the panel added.
Judge Dennis dissented in part. He said he disagreed with the majority and would grant the motion to stay but said he agreed with reserving the federal government's right to apply for emergency relief.
The moratorium was in reaction to the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform explosion on April 20. The accident killed 11 workers, and the uncapped well has been spilling millions of gallons of oil into the water each day since.
U.S. Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the Eastern District of Louisiana granted the plaintiffs' preliminary injunction motion on June 22. The federal government appealed to the Fifth Circuit and on June 25 moved to stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal proceedings.
[Editor's Note: Full coverage will be in the August issue of Mealey's Pollution Liability Report. In the meantime, the order is available at www.mealeysonline.com or by calling the Customer Support Department at 1-800-833-9844. Document #08-100805-001R. For all of your legal news needs, please visit www.lexisnexis.com/mealeys.]
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