As if the Gulf hasn’t had enough problems with oil already. A New Orleans’ federal courthouse ruled on Tuesday that the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling is illegal. According to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, an appeal will be coming very quickly.
During a briefing on Tuesday Gibbs pointed out that, “continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and… potentially puts the safety of those on the rigs and the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now.” Obama had originally placed the moratorium on drilling so that safety checks could be conducted on other wells in the Gulf. (Though there is some question about whether that moratorium really accomplishes much in the first place.)
So who would want off-shore drilling to continue as the Deepwater Horizon rig continues to spew oil into the Gulf waters? The initial lawsuit against the moratorium was filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services, LLC, along with a slew of companies with ties to offshore drilling. These companies felt that there was grounds for a lawsuit because they claim that the Interior Department didn’t provide sufficient evidence for the moratorium and that they made a blanket assertion that other wells may have the same problems as BP’s. Although the appeal will most likely ensure that the moratorium will stay in place for the time being, it’s disturbing to think that companies are so eager to drill that they won’t even wait for BP’s spill to be contained.
What’s also disturbing is that a judge in Louisiana would hand down a decision that would essentially allow for more off-shore oil drilling. Why would U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman rule that way? It may have something to do with the fact that Feldman earns lots of money from energy stocks. In 2008, he had financial ties to companies such as Ocean Energy, Parker Drilling, ATP Oil & Gas, not to mention BlackRock and JP Morgan Chase — two of BP’s largest U.S. private sharholders — among others. I wonder if Judge Feldman has the Gulf and Louisiana’s best interest at heart or just his wallet.
