Litigation

Moratorium-Lifting Judge Held Oil Stocks

By Peter Hardin

A federal judge who struck down the Obama administration’s moratorium on new deepwater drilling, Martin Feldman, has held interests in offshore drilling companies, according to disclosure forms from 2008.

A Huffington Post article said Judge Feldman held energy stocks in Transocean and Halliburton, and in two of BP’s largest US shareholders. Yet it is “unclear” whether the judge still holds the stocks, the article added.

A Wall Street Journal article reported that Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon rig involved in the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and that Judge Feldman said in a May order he had no conflict in a case linked to Transocean. The judge is known in the New Orleans legal community as a “scholarly and conservative jurist,” the article said.

Thirty-seven, or more than half of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts have financial ties to oil, gas and linked energy industries, the Associated Press reported after a review of judges? 2008 disclosure forms (see Gavel Grab).

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