In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Houston on Wednesday, the state of Texas is claiming the Obama administration violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act with its deepwater drilling moratorium

摘要

The act requires the federal government to coordinate with states that might be affected by a drilling moratorium and weigh its economic impact. The Obama administration imposed a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits in May in reaction to BP's Macondo well blowout. A federal judge blocked that ban, but it was replaced with a new one on Jul. 12 by the US Department of the Interior. Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott said, "The federal government ignored the state of Texas and failed to comply with the law when the secretary of the Interior unilaterally imposed the administration's offshore drilling ban. Under federal law, affected states are guaranteed the right to participate in offshore drilling-related policy decisions, but the Obama administration did not bother to communicate, coordinate or cooperate with Texas."