The Other McCain

Instapundit links the news from Bloomberg.

UPDATE: Judge Martin Feldman sides with the people against the powerful:

A New Orleans federal judge lifted the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by President Barack Obama following the largest oil spill in U.S. history. . . .
More than a dozen Louisiana offshore service and supply companies sued U.S. regulators to lift the ban. State officials claim 20,000 Louisiana jobs are in jeopardy if the deepwater drilling suspension lasts 18 months. . . .
Lawyers for the drilling companies told Feldman the moratorium illegally sidesteps a required industry comment period. They also said regulators failed to tell Obama that all active deepwater rigs passed an immediate re-inspection after the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank, with only two rigs reporting minor violations and the rest getting approval to continue operations.

Video background from the Associated Press:

UPDATE II: Judge Feldman’s findings:

1. that plaintiffs are substantially likely to prevail on the merits of their claim for the government defendants’ violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and its implementing regulations;
2. that, in the absence of the relief requested, plaintiffs will incur immediate and irreparable harm to business including the irretrievable loss of vessels’ useful life, loss of crews that have long been associated with their particular vessels, loss of shore-side teams and disruption of longstanding contractual relationships with offshore service vendors and other satellite services for the operation of its fleet, all of which is not subject to calculation;
3. that the irreparable harm to plaintiffs should the Court decline to grant the application for the relief requested outweighs the harm which the granting of such relief may cause to any legitimate interests of defendants; and
4. that the entry of this Order will serve the interests of justice and the public interest.

 

You know who doesn’t give a damn about “the interests of justice and the public interest”? Barack Obama:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Obama plans to appeal a federal judge’s ruling to strike down a six-month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obama believes “that continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and potentially puts the safety of those on the rigs and the safety of the environment in the Gulf at a danger,” Gibbs said.

UPDATE III: Michelle Malkin has much more, including the full text of the judge’s ruling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is in deep doodoo.

UPDATE IV: Ace of Spades adds some discussion of evidence that BP went cheap on its safety mechanisms, kind of like Miley Cyrus conveniently “forgetting” to wear underwear.