Government to decide soon on offshore permits

The Obama administration will comply with a federal judge's order and decide later this month whether to approve a batch of deep-water drilling permits that have been stalled for months, even though the government may appeal the ruling, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday. At issue is U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman's Feb. 17 decision giving the government 30 days to decide whether to grant permits for five proposed drilling projects, in response to a challenge by Ensco, a drilling contractor whose rigs would be used for the work. On Tuesday, Feldman said the mid-February ruling also applied to two drilling applications submitted by Houston-based ATP Oil & Gas Corp. "The judge in this particular case, in my view, is wrong, and we will argue the case," Salazar told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "I don't believe the court has the jurisdiction to basically tell the Department of Interior what my administrative responsibilities are." Salazar later told reporters he was "examining our options in terms of an appeal." If they challenge Feldman's order, Obama administration officials would be fighting a potentially precedent-setting ruling that they say chips away at the Interior Department's authority. But no matter what happens in court, the government will comply with the court order "and make a decision, up or down," on the permit applications within the time limit, said Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes...more