The federal judge who overturned Barack Obama’s offshore drilling moratorium appears to own stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry””including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP prior to its April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico””according to 2008 financial disclosure reports.
So Yahoo reports. It will not come as a big shock to CP readers — see my June 9 post, “58 percent of federal trial judges in oil-affected states have a stake in oil industry.“ Here are the details:
According to Feldman’s 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch [pdf], the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business….
The report discloses that in 2008, Judge Feldman held less than $15,000 worth of stock in Transocean, as well as similar amounts””federal rules only require that judges report a range of values””in Hercules Offshore, ATP Oil and Gas, and Parker Drilling. All of those companies offer contract offshore drilling services and operate offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Judge Feldman also owned between $15,000 and $50,000 in notes offered by Ocean Energy, Inc., a company that offers “concept design and manufacturing design of submersible drilling rigs,” according to its web site.
Think Progress further reports:
The drilling company, Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, LA, claimed financial distress from the imposition of the moratorium. In the ruling handed down this afternoon, Judge Feldman agreed, writing that the administration made an “arbitrary and capricious” decision that would have an “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.” Like many judges presiding in the Gulf region, Feldman owns lots of energy stocks, including Transocean, Halliburton, and one of BP’s largest U.S. private shareholders “” JP Morgan Chase (28.3%). Here’s a list of Feldman’s income in 2008 (amounts listed unless under $1,000):
JP Morgan Chase, BlackRock ($12000- $36000)
Ocean Energy ($1000 – $2500)
NGP Capital Resources ($1000 – $2500)
Quicksilver Resources ($5000 – $15000)
Hercules Offshore ($6000 – $17500)
Provident Energy
Peabody Energy
PenGrowth Energy
RPC Inc
Atlas Energy Resources
Parker Drilling
TXCO Resources
EV Energy Partners
Rowan Companies
BPZ Resources
El Paso Corp
KBR Inc
Chesapeake Energy
ATP Oil & GasIn his opinion today, Feldman wrote, “Oil and gas production is quite simply elemental to Gulf communities.” Indeed, it is so elemental that the justice system is invested in the oil and gas industry. As TP’s Ian Millhiser has written, “Industry ties among federal judges are so widespread that they are beginning to endanger the courts’ ability to conduct routine business. Last month, so many members of the right-wing Fifth Circuit were forced to recuse themselves from an appeal against various energy and chemical companies that there weren’t enough untainted judges left to allow the court to hear the case.”
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced that the administration will “immediately appeal to the 5th Circuit.”
If he owned a small amount of one or two stocks it would be one thing, but with this big of an investment in the energy industry, he should have recused himself. I don’t understand why judges simply don’t buy broad-based index funds. They avoid this issue entirely and typically do not get outperformed over time by stock pickers.
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This kind of justice and climate must have led to the fall of the roman empire. The difference to today is that we face a global cancerous epidemic of greed and out of touch with mother nature.
Tonight Anderson Cooper is going to air a segment interviewing a rig worker who warned about the failure of the blow out preventer – before the disaster happend.
And the immediate effects of the dispersants are already here. Many Gulf clean-up workers have reported illnesses that sound eerily like those that might be expected to occur in people exposed to chemicals in Corexit. BP says the workers are just dehydrated, or maybe they have food poisoning (probably from eating bad fish). Dr. John Howard of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) cautioned against the use of dispersants and noted that the health risks associated with the dispersant chemicals are one the most uncertain areas for health officials.
He also noted that BP has failed to respond to the CDC’s request for samples of the dispersants used in the Gulf.
http://generationgreen.org/?p=1598
You can’t benefit from insider information on index funds, that’s why. (What me cynical?)
As bad as that is, at least that’s where the reach of corporate influence ends.
Oh, wait…
http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/06/BP-louisiana-police-stop-activist
BP-Style Extreme Energy Nightmares to Come
http://www.truth-out.org/bp-style-extreme-energy-nightmares-come60684?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
” see my June 9 post, “58 percent of federal trial judges in oil-affected states have a stake in oil industry.“ ”
put another way…….
“Oil companies in affected states hold stock in fifty eight percent of judges”
absolutely putrid.
Scary stuff, Lou, thanks. It reminds me of when the sainted Ronald Reagan ordered the Highway Patrol and the Alameda County sheriffs to beat up us Cal students with batons, since we didn’t like the Vietnam War.
Will somebody please explain to me if there are any differences between the United States, Nigeria, and Russia? Oh, I forgot. We’ve got Dancing with the Stars.
Can’t say I didn’t see that one coming.
As a recent J.D., I am more concerned that Judge Feldman was so sure that a six month moratorium (i.e. a chance to do a careful an thorough review) was “arbitrary and capricious” that the economic considerations at stake (overstated given that it was only a six month moratorium) trumped the need to consider the issues at trial. I will admit that deciding the issue at trial would have been ineffective given how much time would likely have passed, but what if there is another calamity before the federal government figures out how to properly regulate deepwater rigs? That said, nothing in Judge Feldman’s sweeping condemnation of the (incomplete) administrative record addressed why he thought the Interior Department was not justified in thinking that it needed to know a whole lot more before it figured out how to effectively regulate deepwater drilling. Instead his comments treated the moratorium as if it were intended to be permanent, and because he did so, his remarks disparaging how little the Interior Department seemed to have figured out actually cut against his final conclusion.
Nice judge you have there. Taking care of Alberta tar sands,too?
US to issue order for new Gulf oil drilling ban
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10387830.stm
Historic timeline of moratorium oil drilling
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbs=tl%3A1&q=moratorium+oil+drilling&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=26a79a700caff292
Hurricane season is here in Fl. and for the Gulf
of pollution too. Even when the oil industry says’
that things are under control, history shows that
hurricane damages to the industry may be great.
Damages to the environment then show up.
Don’t know how the Justice Department expects to
deal with those damages. Saying that they don’t
want to discuss it is one way. Maybe, there are some
real ways to deal with the problems that we all will
face having a Gulf of pollution instead of the Gulf
of Mexico.