Gulf Coast governors defend Shell drilling plan
MELINDA DESLATTE, Associated Press
Updated 05:00 p.m., Friday, July 8, 2011
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are asking a federal appeals court to uphold the Obama administration’s approval for a Shell deepwater drilling plan in the Gulf of Mexico.
Environmental groups have asked the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta to throw out the exploration plan. The three Gulf Coast states are seeking to intervene in the case, saying deepwater oil and gas exploration is vital to the states’ economies and to the fossil-fuel dependent nation.