Gulf States Judicial Systems Controlled By Big Oil
Posted on June 23, 2010
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For years big oil has been influencing judicial appointments and elections not only in the gulf coast region but nation wide. As oil companies cut costly safety measures on rigs and refineries they hedged against the inevitable lawsuits by purchasing judges through campaign contributions and lobbying efforts.
Yesterday this judicial influencing paid off as Louisiana’s Judge Feldman overturned the Obama Administration’s moratorium on deep water drilling pending safety review. Judge Feldman and his big oil bosses stood to lose billions in profit as deep water drilling’s safety procedures were scrutinized. Big oil called in their favors and profits are once again trumping safety even as 100,000 barrels of raw crude and a million cubic yards of methane are pouring into the Gulf of Mexico daily due to inefficient safety measures.
“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,” Yahoo News reports.
According to Feldman’s 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch, the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business.
It’s not surprising that Feldman, who is a judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, has invested in the offshore drilling business—an AP investigation found earlier this month that more than half the federal judges in the districts affected by the BP spill have financial ties to the oil and gas industry.
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. None of the companies were direct parties to the lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban.
Read Full Article Here: Revealed: Judge who overturned Obama’s offshore moratorium owns drilling stocks | Raw Story.
American citizens are being killed daily by corporate criminals cutting safety to maintain profits. Sadly these same corporate criminals own our judicial system from the supreme court down. Balance must be restored!
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