Federal judge blocks drilling moratorium; has ties to oil companies

So the oil companies win another one.

Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman, located in New Orleans (of all places), blocked the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling. The moratorium was in response to the ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf.

Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, issued the following response to the ruling:

"Keeping a ban on deepwater drilling in place is absolutely essential. To resume drilling as the disaster in the Gulf continues to unfold would be a slap in the face to the communities that have been hit hard by this tragedy. The oil industry's call to lift the ban on drilling now is one of the worst ideas ever proposed.

"We haven't even stopped the massive flow of oil yet, let alone begun to respond to the damage it has wrought. It's like there's been a car accident and we're talking about how to get the vehicle on the road again while the victim is still bleeding."

Indeed!

Why then would this judge want them to keep drilling even though we obviously can't cope with the disasters that can occur as a result?

The obvious answer is disgusting: It turns out that the judge recently owned stock in several drilling companies.

Kate Sheppard reported on this for Mother Jones. Here is a snippet:

"According to the most recently available financial disclosure form for District Court Judge Martin Feldman, he had holdings of up to $15,000 in Transocean [owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig] in 2008. He has also recently owned stock in offshore drilling or oilfield service providers Halliburton, Prospect Energy, Hercules Offshore, Parker Drilling Co., and ATP Oil & Gas."

Smells like a conflict of interest, doesn't it?

Fortunately, the Obama administration plans to appeal Feldman's ruling.

It will be interesting to see how the case progresses. And my fingers are figuratively crossed in hopes that it progresses in the right direction.

Stay tuned for updates.