Here comes the judge

LITTLE ROCK — AS IF Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf coast hadn’t been hurt enough by a succession of disasters natural and man-made, the Obama administration has chosen to pile on by arbitrarily banning deepwater drilling for six months. At least.

Result: More unemployment, more idled capacity, more suffering for workers without work, and, of course, less energy for an economy that, conventional Greenism to the contrary, muststill 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 Gulfwide. For here comes the judge. His name is The Hon. Martin Feldman and he’s had the simple candor to call an arbitrary decision arbitrary.

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.” 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. This isn’t reason, it’s . . . well, arbitrary.

The administration’s edict has already idled 33 exploratory wells and threatens to shut down a good part of the whole petroleum industry. Washington’s edict brings to mind the doomsters’ reaction after the Hindenburg burst into flames that fateful night in 1937 with horrific, and well-publicized, results. It was a time when manned flight was still far from routine-and some said the disaster just showed that man has no business flying. It was just too dangerous. Like drilling for oil below 500 feet.

Judge Feldman also called the administration’s decision “capricious.” We’re not so sure about that. It seems a calculated enough decision-calculated to appeal to the public’s panic, and the general demand that Washington not just sit there but Do Something, preferably something dramatic. Even if it’s the wrong thing. Even if it adds to the oil spill’s already catastrophic impact on the economy and people of the Gulf states.

Let’s hope this rare sighting in the law-reason, perspective, 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 answered that question when, without hearings or investigation or any further ado, picked a nice round number like 500 feet and simply imposed it, arbitrarily, on the oil industry. And on all those who depend on it.