Judge with financial ties to oil and gas industry overturns Obama's drilling moratorium

The Louisiana judge who overturned President Obama's six-month moratorium on off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday had number of investments in the oil and gas industry, financial disclosure reports show.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan, wrote in his decision to prohibit government officials from enforcing the moratorium until a trial is held: "If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are? Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing."

President Obama had imposed the six-month moratorium on any new drilling in the Gulf following the BP oil spill that has dumped hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf. The decision has halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling on 33 exploratory wells until they can be deemed safe.

While Feldman's holdings in the oil and gas companies range from $15,000 to less than $1,000, many of the companies he has investments in would be affected by the moratorium. Theses companies include: Transocean Ltd., Provident Energy, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling Co., TXCO Resources; EV Energy Partners, Rowan Companies Inc., NCP Capital Resources, BPZ Energy, El Paso Corp., KBR Inc., Chesapeake Energy Corp., and ATP Oil and Gas Corp.

According to the Associated Press, Feldman is just one of 37 active judges in key Gulf Coast districts who have financial ties to energy industries, including oil and gas. Many of these judges have already disqualified themselves from such cases sighting conflicts of interest.

While it could be argued that Feldman's ruling is sound based on his argument, there is no way we can allow a judge, even with modest investments in oil and gas, to have such power in deciding such a critical issue at this time. To allow for more drilling in an area, when we know that safety reports filed on most of these rigs were done so by the companies who would be doing the drilling, would be foolish. It would also be foolish to allow companies to continue to drill without a full investigation into why the BP oil rig exploded, not to mention while millions of gallons of oil continues to spill into the Gulf.

Major oil companies say the moratorium is "unnecessary" and would cripple world energy supplies. But I say another oil spill in the Gulf would cripple the environment and the people who depend on the Gulf for their livelihood for a generation, not to mention the potential loss of life if another rig were to explode. As a nation we must consider what is in our best interest first, the world's second and big oil last - for they are the scum who put us in this position in the first place. Jobs are also a concern for some, but the $350 million contributed by BP to pay for those out of work oil rig workers due to the spill, should be sufficient enough to pay for any damages incurred. It is time that we stop worrying about big corporations and start worrying about the environment and people of America. For too long these bastards have been allowed to scare us into believing that without them we are nothing, but what they fail to see is that without the deep pocket books of the American people they are nothing. If you ask me, a six-month moratorium is not long enough. For we still have two months until the leak is potentially stopped and years until the mess is cleaned up.

But all hope is not lost yet as the Obama administration has vowed to appeal the decision, which many experts suspect they will win.

"We will immediately appeal to the 5th circuit the president strongly believes as the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice argued yesterday 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," said spokesman Robert Gibbs following Judge Feldman's decision.

Obama negotiates $20 billion compensation fund with BP

Just a night after pundits ripped his first Oval Office address on the BP oil spill, President Obama has gained a major victory in the fight to ensure the British-based oil company pays for all damages incurred by the spill, when the two parties announced Wednesday that BP would set up a $20 billion major claims fund for those whose livelihoods are being ruined by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

President Obama promised to make the bastards at BP pay for the mess in the Gulf, and after four-hours of intense negotiations he was able to prove to the American people that he could deliver on his promise. Not only was he able to get BP to agree to creating a $20 billion fund without dragging it through the courts for years and even decades, he also got the executive swine from BP to agree to no cap on the amount they would pay. In addition to this the company also agreed to set up a $100 million fund for oil-rig workers, who have been laid-off due to the six-month moritorium the president has placed on drilling in the Gulf.

"What this is about is accountability," Obama said after his session with BP executives. "For the small-business owners, for the fishermen, for the shrimpers, this is not just a matter of dollars and cents. . . . A lot of these folks don't have a cushion."

So far, 66,000 claims have been filed, $81 million awarded, and 26,000 checks cut, according to accounts from the Coast Guard. And to ensure that all legitimate claims are honored, President Obama has appointed Kenneth Feinberg, the man who oversaw the $7 billion government fund for families of victims of the 9/11 attacks, as the administration's "pay czar" to oversee the payouts.

The fund is also not capped, so BP could still be on the hook for more money in terms of claims and that does not include the fines that the United States will certainly be levying against them once the spill has been capped.

While the announcement came at a great time for those who are losing their livelihood along the Gulf coast, BP executives continue to put their foots in their mouth. During the announcement of the agreement, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg apologized for the "tragic accident" and added "we care about the small people."

The comment was not well-received by the people along the Gulf coast who resented the foreign speaking dignitary's remarks that were perceived as talking down to the working-class people in the Gulf.

By night Svanberg was apologizing for the slip: "I spoke clumsily this afternoon, and for that, I am very sorry. What I was trying to say - that BP understands how deeply this affects the lives of people who live along the Gulf and depend on it for their livelihood - will best be conveyed not by any words but by the work we do to put things right for the families and businesses who've been hurt."