The federal judge who lifted Obama’s six-month drilling moratorium had interests in Transocean and a number of other offshore energy companies, according to financial disclosure forms from 2008.

Martin Feldman, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, held energy stocks in Transocean and Halliburton, as well as two of BP’s largest U.S. private shareholders — BlackRock and JP Morgan Chase. The law Feldman overturned would have halted the approval of any new permits and suspended deepwater drilling at 33 existing exploratory wells in the Gulf, four of which are BP rigs.

“It’s pretty damning,” said Kate Gordon, Vice President for Energy Policy at American Progress. “Transocean is the world’s largest offshore drilling company. It holds most of the offshore drilling rigs in the world. So this is… a clear conflict of interest. I think folks should have known because of the history this region has of having conflicts of interests with judges on this issue. The region has got to have a list of judges that have these conflicts because this comes up all the time.”  Source Article

If you wish to do something besides call your own Congressperson, you can contact:
Congressman Charlie Melancon (D) LA
House Judiciary Commttee
Re: Judge Martin Feldman
Ms. Veronica Eligan
202 225 5727

House Judicial Committee
2138 Rayburn Hse Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515

You can also call Congressman David Wu at (202) 225-0855.  All you have to do after that is ask that the House impeach this person for malfeasance because he did not step aside rather than pass judgment on a case that had so much to do with his money.

~Susan~