NEW ORLEANS — The White House moved quickly to regroup after a federal judge on Tuesday struck down the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as rash and heavy-handed, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.
The White House promised an immediate appeal, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said late Tuesday that within the next few days he will issue a new order imposing a moratorium that eliminates any doubt it is needed and appropriate.
Feldman’s ruling prohibits federal officials from enforcing the ban until a trial is held.
Interior imposed the moratorium last month in the wake of the BP oil spill disaster, halting approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspending drilling on 33 exploratory wells.
Salazar said the new order will contain additional information making clear why the six-month drilling pause was necessary. Salazar pointed to indications of inadequate safety precautions by industry on deepwater wells.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama believes that until investigations can determine why the Gulf spill happened, continued deepwater drilling exposes workers and the environment to “a danger that the president does not believe we can afford.”
Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore rigs argued that the moratorium was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil.
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal and corporate leaders had complained that the ban would cost the region thousands of lucrative jobs.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who has owned stock in a number of petroleum-related companies, sided with the plaintiffs.
“If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are?” he asked. “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.”
He also warned that the shutdown would have an “immeasurable effect” on the industry, the local economy and the U.S. energy supply.
Feldman’s financial disclosure report for 2008, the most recent available, shows holdings in at least eight petroleum companies or funds that invest in them, including Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that blew up. It was not clear whether Feldman still has any of the energy industry stocks.
Josh Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, said the ruling should be rescinded if the judge still has investments in companies that could benefit. “If Judge Feldman has any investments in oil and gas operators in the Gulf, it represents a flagrant conflict of interest,” Reichert said.
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