A federal judge has struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the government rashly concluded that because one rig failed, the others are in immediate danger, too.
The White House promised an immediate appeal.
The Interior Department had halted approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling of 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.
Press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama believes that until investigations can determine why the spill happened, continued deepwater drilling could expose workers and the environment to "a danger that the president does not believe we can afford".
Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore drilling rigs asked US District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans to overturn the moratorium.
They argued it was arbitrarily imposed after the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 workers and blew out the well 5,000ft underwater.
It has spewed anywhere from 67 million gallons to 127 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.
The judge sided with the companies.
"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," he wrote.
His ruling prohibits federal officials from enforcing the moratorium until a trial is held. He did not set a date.
