Gov. Bobby Jindal speaking about employment in Louisiana.The thousands of folks whose livelihood depends on the economic viability of the Gulf region received long-overdue good news this week. U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman blocked President Obama’s moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf, arguing the move was “arbitrary and capricious” and based on “factually incorrect” information that assumed “all Gulf deep water drilling activities put us all in a universal threat of irreparable harm.”

But the good news was short-lived. Moments after the decision, the Obama Administration announced it would seek an appeal to the court decision until more is known about why the spill happened.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is pleading with the Administration to lift the moratorium to save some 20,000 jobs at risk and an estimated loss of $165 to $330 million in wages by the end of the year:

The Administration just doesn’t seem to understand that you can’t just turn a switch on and off with these rigs. When they leave our coast to produce oil in other parts of the country or the world, the jobs that support them go with them.

And:

…thousands of Louisianians should not have to lose their jobs because the federal government can’t adequately do their job of ensuring drilling is done safely. The federal government has an entire agency dedicated to monitoring safe drilling. It shouldn’t take them six months or longer to ensure safety measures are in place and their laws and regulations are being followed. Instead of an arbitrary moratorium, the Administration should listen to their own experts and enact the specific recommended steps from their own experts to ensure proper oversight and safe drilling.”

Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu puts the number of jobs at risk even higher. As the moratorium, ironically, increases the U.S.’s dependence on foreign oil imports, she predicts as many as 330,000 jobs could be at risk in Louisiana.

If President Obama truly is concerned about jobs and the economy in the Gulf region, he will lift the oil drilling moratorium effective immediately.