Court Asked to Reinstate Drilling Ban
The Obama administration asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying that the six-month ban on drilling in more than 500 feet of water, imposed in late May, was necessary to allow time to adopt stricter safety and environmental regulation of deepwater wells. Last month, Judge Martin L. C. Feldman of the United States District Court in New Orleans issued an order blocking the moratorium, saying the Obama administration had failed to justify the need for “a blanket, generic, indeed punitive, moratorium” on deepwater oil and gas drilling. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
Capture and Containment Efforts
BP’s capture system collected or burned off 24,760 barrels of oil on Tuesday, said Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who is leading the federal spill response.
New Government Web Site
The federal government has opened a new Web site, RestoreTheGulf.com, for news related to the oil spill news and will soon phase out the site that it has run jointly with BP. The new site takes the place of deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, the existing Web portal, which BP has been largely paying for since April. BP, responsible for most of the costs of the response and cleanup of the spill, will contribute to the cost of the new Web site, officials said.
Group Releases Data on Birds
Roughly 420 birds harmed by oil have been found on the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, according to Ken Rice, director of wildlife rescue in those states. About 190 of the birds were found dead. The species hit the hardest has been the northern gannet, which spends most of its life over open seas. Other birds that have been found include brown pelicans, terns, loons and shore birds. A substantial number of birds harmed by oil are never found, Mr. Rice told The Associated Press.
Additional updates: nytimes.com/national.
