Politics

Impeach the Oil-Investing Judge Who Declared Deep Sea Drilling Ban Void

By Lisa Graves

Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman, investor in TransOcean and oil drillingThis week, a federal judge sitting in Louisiana struck down the Obama Administration's mere six-month moratorium on deep water drilling, despite the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused by BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling operation. Who is the unelected man standing in the way of permitting a six-month review of this inherently dangerous activity?

Judge Martin Leach-Cross Feldman. Judge Feldman has extensive investments in oil and gas, and not just in any oil and gas, but in Transocean Limited, the company that owned BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. His annual financial disclosure report also showed he held tens of thousands of dollars in stock in other oil and gas exploration companies, including Ocean Energy, which helps design submersible drilling rigs.

His defense will be that none of the many oil companies he is invested in was a "party" to the federal suit challenging the President's temporary ban on new deep-sea drilling, but plainly he profits from deep-water drilling. If he had been a truly fair and prudent judge, he would have recused himself based on the Judicial Canon against creating an appearance of a conflict of interest, even if he did not invest in the specific parties because his decision certainly appears to protect his financial interests.

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Full post as published by PR Watch on June 23, 2010 (boomark / email).