by Agence France-Presse.
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama has reversed a decision to expand oil exploration off U.S. coasts and, in the wake of the BP spill, will extend a deepwater drilling ban in certain areas through 2017, the administration said on Wednesday.
The move, announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, would extend a ban on deepwater drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico for five more years.
The policy shift also amounts to the partial reversal of a decision in October to lift a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that was imposed after the spill.
The tragic April 20 explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig spewed a record 4.9 million barrels, or 185 million gallons, of toxic crude into the sea. It crippled local fishing and tourism industries in Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states and caused untold damage to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem.
Obama's new five-year-plan would allow deepwater drilling to continue in the western part of the Gulf of Mexico, where the explosion actually happened and where the worst-affected parts of the Gulf Coast are.
rest at http://www.grist.org/article/2010-12-01-obama-extends-drilling-ban-in-wake-of-bp-spill
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