WASHINGTON _ A federal judge in South Carolina on Friday blocked the Trump administration from processing seismic testing permits for offshore oil drilling, a setback for the administration's efforts to assist energy companies during the partial government shutdown.
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel issued an injunction that stops the Interior Department "from taking action to promulgate permits ... or take any other official action regarding the pending permit applications for oil and gas surveys in the Atlantic" until after the government shutdown ends.
Gergel's injunction came after South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson learned that the Interior Department had ordered employees of its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to come back to work and process permits for five companies that want to use airgun blasts to search for oil.
