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Van Ness Feldman's Howard Shapiro Quoted in The Christian Science Monitor on the Gulf Oil Spill drilling Moratorium

July 8, 2010

Howard Shapiro comments on the Obama administrations six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling and its hearing in frot of a federal appeals court.  Mr. Shapiro states that, "These judges will have questions about the balancing of the risks – questions like: Was there an assessment by the government of the probability of risk of another blowout? They will want to balance this against the significant economic damages claimed by the plaintiffs."  In regards to US District Judge Martin Feldman's ruling that the moratorium was too broad and did not rely on all "the facts,"  Shapiro says, "The judges will be probing to see if Judge Feldman's conclusion was justified and try to make a judgment.  But in the back of their minds, if they are wrong and if something like a hurricane occurs before they can fully assess the injunction, of course they know they'll be blamed for it."

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