White House To Immediately Appeal Ruling Against Offshore Drilling Ban

By Jared A. Favole Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday the White House will "immediately" appeal a ruling blocking U.S. President Barack Obama's ban on deepwater offshore drilling. Gibbs, at a White House press briefing, said Obama strongly believes that "continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense." His comments come after a federal judge in New Orleans ruled Tuesday against Obama's offshore drilling ban. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit by oil service companies affected by the ban. The lawsuit, filed in early June by Hornbeck Offshore LLC, a small oil services company based in Covington, La., says the U.S. Department of the Interior's May 28 move to stop offshore drilling for six months after the Gulf of Mexico spill is "arbitrary" and "capricious." -By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202.862.9256; jared.favole@dowjones.com (Angel Gonzalez contributed to this article) (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 22, 2010 14:12 ET (18:12 GMT)