Appeals court gives Interior reprieve on deepwater drilling permits

A federal appeals court on Tuesday granted the Interior Department a reprieve from a lower court judge’s order to make decisions on several deepwater oil-and-gas drilling permits applications.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a stay of the order while the case is under appeal.

Judge Martin Feldman — a Louisiana district court judge — in February ordered Interior to make decisions on five pending Gulf of Mexico permit applications by mid-March, and later ordered a decision on two others by March 31.

But Interior appealed the orders in early March, and asked the court for a stay pending appeal, warning that complying with the order might force the department to “deny the applications outright” and divert resources from review of other permit requests.

Three appellate judges blocked Feldman's order pending appeal without comment Tuesday.

Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement last month approved the first deepwater drilling permit for the type of project that was halted after last year’s BP oil spill began, and Friday approved a second deepwater permit. Neither were among the applications at issue in the court case.

Feldman — who sits on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana — has issued a string of decisions that are highly critical of Interior’s offshore drilling restrictions.

Interior lifted a ban on deepwater drilling in October but is requiring companies to comply with a suite of beefed-up safety rules. The pace of permitting has led to attacks from Republicans and some Democrats who want faster action.