EDITORIAL: Let Shell deepwater project proceed
The Daily Advertiser (excerpt)

Three Gulf Coast governors, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Robert Bentley of Alabama, hope to head off a challenge by environmental groups to one of the first big deepwater exploration projects to emerge since the BP oil spill.

Shell Oil of Mexico received a permit for the work in May from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The site is 10 miles off the Alabama coast, but Louisiana was looking forward to a big role in the project because our airports and ports would have been the points of departure for the craft needed to perform the work. The plans call for the drilling of 10 wells, but separate permits must be obtained for the drilling. The environmental groups — Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council — have asked the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to halt the work, alleging it violates the safety standards imposed in August by BOEMRE. The governors have asked to intervene on behalf of Shell's project.

We hope Gov. Jindal and his colleagues will be successful.