A federal appeals court rejected the government's attempt to restore their ban on offshore drilling late Thursday afternoon.
Still, drilling companies may not be up-and-running anytime soon.
On paper, it looks like a win for the oil industry- drilling can continue as it did before the moratorium. However, drilling companies aren't acting too fast.
Don Briggs of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association says offshore companies will not continue drilling until the appeals process is complete.
"The uncertainty exists, the uncertainty is out there," Briggs says. "They will not drill as long as there's uncertainty."
With Billion-dollar projects on the line, Briggs says some companies have already packed-up their bags and shipped themselves overseas- to places like the shores of Brazil and Egypt; those jobs may not be coming back and it's not just the oil industry who will suffer.
Not too long ago, the parking lot was full at lunch-time at Nimbeaux's Restaurant in Lafayette.
"The minute they put the moratorium on, the confidence in oil-supported businesses went away," Nimbeaux's owner Jim Babin said.
The confidence wasn't the only thing to disappear- many of Nimbeaux's customers vanished as well.
"We've lost about 30-percent of our customers." Babin said.
A large number of those customers work... or worked in the oil industry. While Babin's food service business suffers, so do a number of other industries.
"So many of the products that we touch, feel, smell," says Rob Guidry of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. "(They're) based out of petroleum products."
According to Guidry, southern Louisiana is on-pace to suffer an economic depression never seen before- all because 10-percent of the job market, the oil-workers, are sitting at home.
"Technically, the companies are allowed to drill." Guidry says, "but in reality there are new regulations in place, new permitting processes."
Just those processes to get a permit to drill could take months. On top of that, oil companies may hold-off to do anything until they know for sure the government won't stop them.
"Billions of dollars are at stake," Guidry says. "With that much money out there, they're going to be cautious."
If the moratorium follows a path to the Supreme Court, and the possibility of it succeeding remains alive, oil companies won't likely sink billions of dollars into a project to have it delayed or shut-down.
Even if the Supreme Court rejects the moratorium, the federal government can draft a new one- essentially continuing the process for many months.
As long as the moratorium has a glimmer of hope, the oil companies will remain on stand-by, workers will go without a paycheck and owners in other industries, like Jim Babin, will take a hit too.
"There would still be a period of doubt." Babin says, "we'd have to get over (that) before things came back up."
To put an end to the moratorium, government officials will hold a protest on July 21st. It's called the Rally for Economic Survival. The rally begins on the 21st at 11 a.m. and lasts until 1 p.m.
Organizers will open the Cajundome for anyone who wants to show their support for the local industry and give Louisiana a united voice against this moratorium and future moratoriums to follow.

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