Energy stocks plunged on Tuesday after the White House said it would immediately appeal a federal judge's ruling against a six-month ban on new deepwater drilling projects.
New Orleans U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman on Tuesday overturned the six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects imposed by the Obama administration and said that the government's action were "arbitrary and capricious."
"The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an unprecedented, sad, ugly and inhuman disaster," he wrote. "What seems clear is that the federal government has been pressed by what happened on the Deepwater Horizon into an otherwise sweeping confirmation that all Gulf deepwater drilling activities put us all in a universal threat of irreparable harm."
Energy stocks also came under pressure after crude oil futures settled 1% lower.
Shares of BP plc (NYSE: BP) plunged 2.11% to $29.69 in late afternoon trading.
Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG), which leased the Deepwater rig to BP, tumbled 2.52% to $52.55.
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC), which has a 25 percent stake in the well, slumped 4.45% to $41.51.
Shares of Cabot Oil & Gas Corp (NYSE: COG) shares slid 7.48% to $33.23.
Disclosure: Author doesn’t own any of the stocks discussed here.
