A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The moratorium, which the president announced May 27, temporarily halted all new permits at depths greater than 500 feet, as well as drilling at the 33 existing exploratory wells in the area. But more than a dozen offshore oil companies sued to overturn the ban, and on Tuesday federal judge Martin Feldman ruled in their favor. The White House said it plans to appeal immediately…