Salazar: US Wants To Maintain Moratorium Until Safety Assured

24th Jun 2010 15:47

By Siobhan Hughes Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told lawmakers on Thursday that he wants to keep a moratorium on deepwater drilling in place until safety issues are addressed following a two-month old BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) oil-spill disaster. "We want to keep the moratorium in place until we get to a level where we can provide a sense of safety to the American people that drilling can, in fact, continue," Salazar told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "How that will all come together is something that we're working on." On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans issued an injunction that bars the administration from enforcing the deepwater-drilling ban. On Wednesday night, the government asked Feldman to temporarily stay his injunction while it pursues an appeal with the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The legal wrangling could continue for days or drag on for weeks. In the meantime, the Obama administration has been working on a revised deepwater-drilling moratorium. -By Siobhan Hughes; Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; [email protected] (Brent Kendall contributed to this article.) (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 24, 2010 10:47 ET (14:47 GMT)