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Jewish World Review June 29, 2010 / 17 Tamuz 5770 Here Comes the Judge By Paul Greenberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
As if What an exciting prospect: More unemployment, more idled capacity, more workers without work, more families on the dole, and, of course, less energy for an economy that, conventional Greenism to the contrary, must still depend on that remarkably efficient and convenient fuel called petroleum. But it turns out there is still some law and even reason left in the chaotic aftermath of BP's disastrous explosion-cum-oil spill that's now going Gulf-wide. For here comes the judge. His name is the Hon. Can you believe it -- a ruling by a federal court that takes reality into account? While recognizing that the Deepwater Horizon spill is "an unprecedented, sad, ugly and inhuman disaster," His Honor refused to condone piling another one on top of it via federal fiat. Reason has long been the last resort of law. This judge has made it the first, much to the consternation of the administration's lawheads. To quote the judge, "If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are? Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like the Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing." Rather overbearing? There's no rather about it. The administration has responded to the oil spill by drawing a line in the water at 500 feet. Regardless of all the wells operating safely above -- or below -- that level. That isn't reason, it's ... well, arbitrary. With one edict it put a total of 33 exploratory oil wells out of commission. And threatens to shut down a good part of the whole petroleum industry.
Judge Feldman also called the administration's decision "capricious." Maybe not. It seems a calculated enough decision -- calculated to appeal to the public's panic, and the general demand that It's a grandstand play that will allow the president to stack the commission that's supposed to investigate the feasibility of drilling for oil in the Gulf. Now he can fill it up with enviro-ideologues who never wanted to drill there in the first place. None are likely to recuse themselves from an appointment; even if they have prejudged the issue; this may be their big chance to throw a monkey wrench into the whole idea of drilling offshore.
The disaster on Judge Feldman's decision revives hope in the federal courts. Let's hope this rare sighting in the law -- of reason, perspective and proportion -- sets a new trend. But the tendency to substitute ideology for reason, and reaction for judgment, won't be easy to buck. The judge's decision will surely be appealed. There is a whole level of officialdom in this country that finds reason ... well, unreasonable. Judge Feldman, in his zeal for reason, turns out to be quite a rhetorician. But in the end, what should matter most in this case is whether the Obama administration followed the law -- whether it respected its own rules and regulations or acted arbitrarily. The administration pretty much answered that question when, without hearings or investigation or any further ado, it picked a nice round number -- 500 feet -- and simply imposed it, arbitrarily, on the oil industry. And on all those who depend on it.
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