Liar! Says the Judge About Sec'y Salazar

A United States district Judge has issued a preliminary injunction against the Obama Administration's moratorium on "deep-water" oil operations. Secretary Salazar had issued the moratorium order because, he claimed that seven experts agreed that a moratorium was needed. here is what the Judge said about that claim:

Much to the government’s discomfort and this Court’s uneasiness, the Summary also states that “the recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.” As the plaintiffs, and the experts themselves, pointedly observe, this statement was misleading. The experts charge it was a “misrepresentation.” It was factually incorrect.

Translation: Salazar lied about what the experts were saying.

Some of President Obama's natural left-wing enviro-allies, the Florida Wildlife
Federation, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, the Sierra Club, and the Defenders of Wildlife intervened as defendants to support the government's moratorium. Their position? The government is incompetent and corrupt.

It is hard to disagree with that factually, of course, but the the judge said:

If the MMS [United States Minerals Management Service] and the Department [of the Interior] truly were incompetent and corrupt, as the intervenors insist, the Court fails to see how this conclusion supports the government’s position. Indeed, while the government makes light of the fact that several of the experts disagree with the recommendations in the Report by noting that they do not disagree with the findings, of greater concern is the misleading text in the Executive Summary that seems to assert that all the experts agree with the Secretary’s recommendation. The government’s hair-splitting explanation abuses reason, common sense, and the text at issue.

Read the decision here.

The experts in the report define "deep water" as below 1000 feet. The Obama moratorium redefined deep water as below 500 feet.

Is it any wonder that the court found the moratorium order to be irrational?

The Obama Administration, of course promises a new pack of lies to replace to old pack of lies. Not in those exact words, of course.