Oops... He Did it Again

On April 20^th President Obama and his administration placed a six month drilling moratorium on the Gulf of Mexico in light of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Today, that decision was blocked by a New Orleans federal circuit judge who ruled that the moratorium should be blocked in order to keep it from doing long-term economic damage to New Orleans’ businesses. If this moratorium were to continue as planned, it could cause the economic ruin of regional boaters and equipment providers during its short life span. This adds concern in light of the fact that the more than 60,000 barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico every day will most likely lead to employment cuts if an end to the spill does not come soon.

On a somewhat positive note, BP has collected a record number of oil barrels from the spill today- 25,830. This is less than half the amount of the actual oil that’s spilling into the ocean per day, but twice as much as was originally estimated. This is not enough, however, to cushion the blow of the nearly $2 billion in costs which include response, containment, relief well drilling, Gulf state grants, insurance claims paid and federal costs. To date, more than 65,000 insurance claims have been made.

Thoughts?