Judge rules against drilling moratoriam--has conflict of interest

Via ThinkProgress:

In 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"

Do check the link. You may wonder if the Reagan-appointed jurist ever thought to recuse himself from the case at hand given his financial connections? Oh no--never forget my formula for Republican conflict of interest:

If you always work in your own self-interest, there's never a conflict.

Although I daresay enough Democrats in the Gulf region are very invested, too. I'm rooting for the WH on appeal--it seems likely to me that this one bad-enough incident could be the tip of an iceberg of environmental concerns. I don't want there to be a Guulf full of petroleum-based time-bombs out there, and I suspect one good, solid reason for the moratorium might be to catch up on inspections--or at least, I hope it is. In which case, a slow-down is a good plan--

And I get back to this scary idea of the well-casing being flawed, and fissures around the sea floor (recent pics almost look if the well is leaning--that would not be good). That just gives me a gut-level feeling that a really, really worst-case scenario hasn't been considered--what about a leak that can't be switched-off?

Nobody's pocket should take precedence over other people's safety and the health of this planet.