Judge Holds Feds in Contempt in Texas-EPA Case

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ The federal judge who struck down the Obama administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling after the Gulf oil spill is holding the Interior Department in contempt of court.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman chided the department for its “dismissive conduct” after he overturned the agency’s decision to halt any new permits for deepwater projects and suspend drilling on 33 exploratory wells after the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill.

On Wednesday, he ordered the federal agency to pay attorneys’ fees for several offshore oil companies.

After Feldman overturned the government’s moratorium in June, the agency issued a second nearly identical suspension. That moratorium was lifted in October.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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