"the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country."

This sounds like a policy decision, not a legal opinion. So when the right spouts off about the it, be sure to remind them that this is an *activist* judge ruling on his own behalf.

I think the oil industry will come to regret winning this judgment.

case A) 6 month moratorium ends and MMS is under the gun to approve re-start of drilling.

case B) Go to court against MMS, win judgment. Now just try to get MMS bureaucrats to approve any new change in your drill plan. I think drilling will be even slower than if the moratorium runs its course.

What if there is another spill now - who gets blamed?
Overeager oil drillers. Drilling will be permanently stopped
in the Gulf at least.

Obama is lucky again in having his opposition go crazy.

This is without even considering that now Obama will send the same government ninjas who sabotaged the Deepwater Horizon to sabotage another well.

Can’t anybody play this game?

Good point, Baldrick. I'm not sure what the legal standard here was, but it seems to me that either the President has the power to make this decision or he doesn't. I wouldn't have thought that a judge would get to decide he was wrong on the policy involved. But you know, these right wing judges just follow the law and don't make personal decisions (ha, ha!).

Just another example of the humongous corporate influence over our executive, legislative, and judical branches of government. And it's only going to get worse - no surprise at all.

Time for a name change. The judge is just looking out for states' rights in Louisianoil.

This judge must have big ones to risk his career in this manner. They weren't kidding when they nicknamed NOLA the Big Easy.

@ David and Baldrick -

The legal standard is "irreparable harm" to the plaintiff. Since an injunction asks the court to invoke its equitable powers (i.e., evaluate whether failure to issue an injunction would be "unfair" to the plaintiff), the judge can look to just about any factor he/she believes has some bearing on balancing fairness between the parties. I think the observation about drilling was dicta; i.e., not an essential part of his holding.

Beyond that I can't really comment since I don't know this area of law at all. I'd be interested in hearing other attorneys' takes on it. It seems like the judge gave short shrift to evidence of regulatory abuses/lapses MMS cited in its decision to issue the moratorium.

Also, what do you think the odds are the Fifth Circuit will rule in favor of MMS?

Failed state in a warming world of hard oil

American democracy now resembles nothing so much as one of those oiled Pelicans, all greased up with corporate ooze, and totally unable to fly...

If he owned Black Rock he has already taken a bath, since Black Rock owned oodles of BP. But it looks like hizzoner is doing OK financially, not like us 'small people' who had a few hundred BP shares.

The opinion asserts that the moratorium decision was arbitrary and capricious (the standard for reversal under the governing statute). As an example of his reasoning, the judge said that just because an airplane crashes, one doesn't shut down all flight operations. He ignored the obvious fact that when a crash is tied in to an equipment failure, the fleet of relevant aircraft will often be grounded pending analysis and remedy of the failure throughout the fleet. He also didn't discuss at all the lack of any satisfactory remediation plan throughout the industry in the event of a blowout and blowout preventer failure. Looked like a home town call to me.

The judge made his decision based on what he thought policy should be for economic reasons("the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country"), not, for example, the law and whether the feds have legal authority.

"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 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. Feldman was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983"

Here's a list of the plaintiffs in today's decision taken from Judge Feldman's Order:

Hornbeck Offshore Services, L.L.C., Bee Mar-Worker
Bee LLC, North American Fabricators, L.L.C., Bee Mar LLC, Offshore Support Services, L.L.C., Martin Holdings, LLC, Bollinger Algiers,
L.L.C., Sea Fluids, L.L.C., Bollinger Marine Fabricators, Inc., CPort 2 LLC, Bee Mar-Bayou Bee LLC, Bollinger Amelia Repair, LLC, CPort LLC, Fourchon Heavy Lift, L.L.C., C-Innovation, Bee Mar-Bee Hive LLC, Bee Mar-Queen Bee LLC, Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., Clean Tank, LLC, Bee-Mar-Honey Bee LLC, Tampa Ship, L.L.C., Bee Mar-Busy Bee LLC, Bee Mar Crews LLC, Bee Mar-Bumble Bee LLC, Bollinger Texas City, LP, Bollinger Calcasieu, LLC, Bollinger Shipyards Lockport,
L.L.C., Bollinger Quick Repair, L.L.C., Bollinger Morgan City, L.L.C., Bollinger Gretna, L.L.C., Bee Mar-Bee Sting LLC, North American Shipbuilding, L.L.C., Bollinger Fourchon, L.L.C., Gulf Ship, L.L.C., Alpha Marine Services, L.L.C., Nautical Solutions LLC, Nautical Ventures, L.L.C., Reel Pipe LLC

In addition to a finding that the plaintiff would be "irreparably harmed," the judge also had to hold that a court would likely find that the drilling moratorium was "arbitrary and capricious.

This is really an amazing ruling, just in legal terms. The judicial standard for intervening here and issuing an injunction was very, very high.

What post-facto recourse is there against a "Judge" like this? There should be ... And there needs to be reform of this whole system. Like most in their class, these rascals can't regulate themselves. We need recusal panels that will do it for them.

BTW that Judge was using the same talk-radio meme about grounding flights. But as I explained here before it's a false analogy: the moratorium is not to stop operation of current wells, only new drilling. It is not like stopping plane flights, but like stopping new construction of a model that blew up in the factory!

I don't think the airplane thing from that "judge" is just a coincidence. It sounds so much like the dextro-meme marching orders I heard much of in the last few days.

Conflict of interest and recusal are apparently only for the "small people."

It is pretty amazing - Judge Feldman goes to great lengths throwing around numbers regarding the entire off-shore drilling industry

"Indeed, an estimated 150,000 jobs are directly related to offshore operations. The government admits that the industry provides relatively high paying jobs in drilling and production activities. Oil and gas production is quite simply elemental to Gulf communities. There are currently approximately 3600 structures in the Gulf, and Gulf production from these structures accounts for 31% of total domestic oil production and 11% of total domestic, marketed natural gas production"

without differentiating between the many shallow water wells that are unaffected by this (and that have a completely different safety standard to be considered) and the relatively few deep water wells that are out there. There are something like 33 deepwater wells that are affected by the moratorium, but instead Feldman would rather talk about "3600 structures". Disingenuous. Dishonest.

You have to admit that Martin Feldman played a great Igor in Young Frankensetin.

I must confess I was a bit mystified by the moratorium's significance -- unless we're all willing to admit it was purely political (not that I blame the administration, because they're in a tough spot on this).

I mean, aren't there dozens (hundreds?) of rigs up and running 24/7 in vulnerable waters off the US coast?

If we're worried about safety and environmental issues, wouldn't we want to stop ALL off shore drilling, and not just have it apply to new drilling?

for the love of God. The judge had a personal stake on lifting the moratorium. Is there someone in that judicial system to file a complaint with? Maybe the state's bar association?

This would be a good time to fire Salazar and put Interior in the temporary hands of someone who would slow the permitting process to a crawl and fire up the inspection process with an eye towards 100% perfection.

Not a moratorium per se, but there is no reason why a work by the rules effort can't have the same effect.

I'm not an attorney, and I don't play one on TV, but it will be really interesting to see if Holder's DOJ has the stones to appeal this, not just as wrong on the law, but a s personally prejudicial statement against interest by the judge.

BTW Feldman is a first-term Saint Ronny appointee. He was basically a nothingburger tax lawyer. He graduated college in 1955, which means he was born in the early-to-mid-1930's and is therefore well into the downside of his life and career. A cursory search reveals that he has been a cipher, and has done nothing remarkable, ever. Given his age and provenance [and based on no evidence whatever] its possible that he felt like teaching the ni... ni... a lesson. Hey, starnger things have happened.

Back when I first started practicing law in federal court It used to be a requirement that judges had to disclose their financial interests so as to prevent there being a conflict of interest. As soon as BushCo was appointed, that disclosure practice ended. Conflicts of interest are for weenies and law abiding citizens. Republican politicians don't believe in the rule of law, they believe in the law of ruling.

Humm... A Judge in LOUISIANA, Home of Huey Long, which is totally dependent on the Oil Industry, and is deeply reactionary ruled against tbe stop oil drilling order by the Liberal Obama Admi.... What a suprise!

Jasper: "I must confess I was a bit mystified by the moratorium's significance"

You are missing that once the will is drilled and in production it is probably not a threat.

It is only the new one's being drilled in deep water where there is no demonstrable ability to combat a blowout that were affected by the moratorium.

There is definitely something A.B. Normal about this judge's ruling.

Well, it could be worse. It could be raining.

I fully expect my comment to be deleted - again - but just in case:

I'm so glad to hear the self-righteous assertions from the left here. It's good to know that progressives who have totally stopped using oil can take the lead in our society.

You all HAVE stopped using oil. Right?

J, that's a red herring. We want conservation and regulation, but few are calling for everyone to just "give up oil." It isn't practical for most people to make that extreme and sudden an adjustment. REM too that the moratorium was about safety from spills by warding off corner-cutting etc., not stopping use of oil. Finally, no matter of truth or even ethics is decided or critiqued by anything about the people who talk about it (ad hominem fallacy), only its intrinsic value.

And I guess then by your reasoning, all conservatives who think our government is unconstitutional should refuse social security and Medicare benefits etc., tell your Governors and Congressfolks not to accept stimulus or local spending, etc.

Hey, nice blog post, just one small question though, do you use blogengine? If you do, where can I get a template like you have for my site, or did you make it yourself?

Really liked looking into this. Keep it up!