Last night the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an order denying Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s request to stay a lower court’sdecision to grant a preliminary injunction of a moratorium preventing offshore E&P activities in water deeper than 500 feet. The order notes that the government failed to demonstrate that an irreparable injury would be suffered if the stay were not granted but that Secretary Salazar can apply for emergency relief if deepwater drilling activity “has commenced or is about to commence.” The appeal examining the merits of the moratorium will be handled on an expedited scheduled so that oral arguments can take place during the week of August 30, 2010.
The oral arguments in this case are available on the Fifth Circuit’s website here. In the argument, counsel for the government noted that DOI continues to work on developing new moratorium parameters
