Judge lifts Obama's deepwater drilling moratorium

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge struck down the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as rash and heavy-handed yesterday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an immediate danger, too.

But after the ruling, Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar said he will issue a new order "in the coming days" imposing the moratorium. He said the new order will contain additional information making clear why the six-month drilling pause, imposed last month, was necessary in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Meanwhile, the White House vowed an immediate appeal of the judge's decision.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president believes that until investigations can determine why the spill happened, continued deepwater drilling exposes workers and the environment to "a danger that the president does not believe we can afford."

Several firms that provide services to offshore rigs argued that the moratorium was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and blew out the well 5,000 feet underwater. It has spewed anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons of oil.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who has owned stock in a number of petroleum-related companies, prohibits officials from enforcing the moratorium until a trial is held.

Josh Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, said the ruling should be rescinded if Feldman still has investments in companies that could benefit from the decision.

Feldman did not immediately respond to a request for more information about his current holdings.