Judge Overturns Obama's Moratorium Due To BP (NYSE:BP)

In a surprising move, Martin Feldman, U.S. District Judge from New Orleans has blocked President Obama's six month moratorium, originating because of BP's (NYSE:BP) worst oil spill in U.S. history. The moratorium was at first going to just be for any new deepwater drilling and for only the month of May, but then it turned into a suspension of all Gulf coast drilling. Shutting down 33 of the Gulf's exploratory wells.

The complaint was submitted to the Judge by several businesses who provided many different services who are arguing the moratorium was arbitrarily imposed. In his ruling Feldman agreed, stating in his ruling that the Interior Department is assuming because one rig failed all rigs and companies involved with deepwater drilling are posing an imminent danger.

Feldman wrote, "an invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500 feet simply cannot justify 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."

The Interior Department's response to the lawsuit is simply, the moratorium is necessary while the continued attempts go on in the Gulf to stop the crude oil and cleanup the oil spill. "A second deepwater blowout could overwhelm the efforts to respond to the current disaster," said the Interior Department.

The White House said there will be an immediate appeal.