First Offshore Drilling Permission Granted

As you know, the Obama administration issued a ban on deepwater drilling that was thrown out by courts. They responded by just refusing to issue any deepwater drilling permits, which eventually prompted the judge to hold them in contempt of court and order them to start approving permits so drilling can re-commence.

Well, they've finally done it. Yesterday, the administration approved the first "drilling plan" since Obama unilaterally shut down all deepwater drilling in the Gulf. No permit yet, mind, but the "plan" was approved.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0311/into_the_water_701de6b2-54a6-48cf-b0a8-c01e227cf4c1.html

The Obama administration has approved the first new deep-water exploration plan since the BP oil leak, submitted by Shell Offshore Inc.

While Shell still needs to get a permit to start drilling, Monday’s approval brings the company closer than any other since the Deepwater Horizon disaster to creating new oil wells.

The Interior Department hailed the announcement as one in a series of “important milestones” in the return to “safe drilling in deep water.”

First, watch for the actual PERMIT to take a while to issue. Second, don't look for a lot of action to follow... "drilling plans" will be slow to approve, and permits even slower to issue.

You see, the drilling ban failed, so they switched to a simple plan of not issuing permits... a drilling ban by another name. Now that that has failed, watch for the Obama administration to "go slow" on approving plans and permits. This allows them to say, "we're doing it, we're not refusing to issue permits," while still maintaining most of the effects of a drilling ban.

Obama, obey a court order? Please.