A federal judge today ordered the Interior Department to take action on five deepwater drilling permits within the next month and accused the agency of using "autocratic discretion" by delaying approval of new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who earlier this month held Interior in contempt for imposing a second moratorium last summer on deepwater drilling, today said the agency broke federal law by failing to act on five deepwater drilling proposals from Ensco Offshore Co. submitted between April and October of last year.

The Louisiana judge in a 17-page order said Ensco had lost revenues by having to keep its rig in place in the Gulf and has been forced to move other rigs overseas due to Interior delays.

"It is undisputed that before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, permits were processed, on average, in two weeks' time," Feldman wrote. "In stark contrast, the five permits at issue have been pending from four to some nine months."

The judge's order is a new twist in an ever-evolving picture of offshore drilling in the Gulf following BP PLC's oil spill last April.

In addition to Feldman's order, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) this week said he would hold up President Obama's nominee to lead the Fish and Wildlife Service until Interior issues 15 deepwater drilling permits (E&E Daily, Feb. 17).

Vitter today praised Feldman's ruling and said he intends to continue his hold on Obama's FWS nominee, Dan Ashe.

"I applaud this ruling today. It confirms what Senator [Mary] Landrieu [D-La.] and I have been saying along with virtually every other Louisianian: President Obama's continuing de facto moratorium in the Gulf is inexcusable," he said.

Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has received five permits to drill in deep water since imposing final interim rules in October and is currently reviewing six completed applications.

Interior in October lifted its moratorium on deepwater drilling but imposed tough new rules to prevent blowouts, protect human safety and prepare containment plans in the case of spills.

But Feldman cited industry complaints that Interior has done a poor job clarifying what new information it needs from drillers to effectively process permits, leading to indefinite delays.

"The revised regulations are no longer new; and the threat of rigs leaving the Gulf becomes more forceful each day. The permitting backlog becomes increasingly inexcusable," Feldman wrote. "Strained resources do not amend the government's duty to act on permit applications that pass before it."

Feldman cited the Administrative Procedures Act, which requires a reviewing court to "compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed."

"Not acting on permit applications seems contrary to the [Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act's] command that drilling development be 'expeditious,' and the APA's command that a permit must be processed 'within a reasonable time.'"

An Interior spokeswoman said the agency is still reviewing the order.

Interior last night said the main reason it has not yet issued a deepwater drilling permit for activity that had been suspended under the moratorium is that no operators have demonstrated the ability to access and deploy containment resources to deal with a deepwater blowout and spill.

"Production and exploration in the Gulf are ongoing and industry, in coordination with BOEMRE, continues to make progress toward developing the capability to contain blowouts in deepwater, which the Macondo blowout made clear is critical to safe deepwater exploration," Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said in an e-mail. "The bureau is working as expeditiously as is safely possible to review drilling permits as they are submitted and ensure they meet the important safety standards put in place in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill."

The agency has approved 31 shallow-water permits and has eight permits pending.

Feldman's order comes the same day that industry and pro-drilling lawmakers touted the completed development of an oil spill containment system and urged accelerated drilling in the Gulf (see related story).

Dan Kish, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, said Feldman's order recognizes a congressional statute ordering Interior to take action on offshore drilling permits within 30 days.

"I think he's tired of the excuses," Kish said of Feldman. "Frankly, the Department of Interior's behavior in this has been contemptuous, both of Congress, the OCSLA and the courts."

Echoing Vitter's remarks, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) today said he agreed with Feldman's finding that "the leaking culprit well has been contained" and that the permitting backlog is unjustifiable in light of the threatened economic damage to the Gulf.

"Delays of four months and more in the permitting process ... are unreasonable, unacceptable and unjustified," he said.