In the wake of U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman’s decision to lift the ban on offshore drilling established by President Obama, supporters of the moratorium have raised concern about whether the judge should have recused himself because of energy investments he made that could have led to a biased ruling. Feldman owned stock in Exxon-Mobil, which had plans to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, but were set back by the moratorium. The judge also held stock in Allis-Chalmers Energy Inc., a Houston company that provides services and equipment to oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico, and Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded on April 20. An Associated Press investigation launched in June showed that more than half of the federal judges in districts affected by the BP oil spill have significant investments in the oil and gas industry.
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