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Obama Suspends Offshore Drilling Permits Amid Outrage Over Gulf Oil Spill
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May 27, 2010 5:35 p.m. EST
Topics: politics, environmental cleanup, disaster and accident, environmental issue, interior policy, industrial accident, United States
Tom Ramstack - AHN News Correspondent
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) - President Obama suspended deepwater oil drilling permits for another six months in a policy change announced Thursday.
He also ordered that drilling off the coast of Alaska be halted and that leases be canceled to companies that seek to search for oil in the Gulf and off the coast of Virginia.
By stopping further offshore oil drilling, Obama was at least delaying a policy that was a big part of his plan to make the United States less dependent on foreign imports.
He was motivated by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster off the coast of Louisiana that this week became the worst oil spill in American history, according to a new government report.
As the well owned by British company BP has continued leaking oil for a month, harsh criticism has fallen on Obama for failing to take prompt action to stop it.
He responded to the criticisms during a press conference on the East Room of the White House Thursday.
“I take responsibility,” Obama said. “It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down.”
Hours before the press conference, the head of the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which supervises offshore oil drilling, resigned.
Witnesses at recent congressional hearings blamed the Minerals Management Service for failing to perform all required safety inspections and developing an unprofessional relationship with the oil industry.
Elizabeth Birnbaum, head of the agency, said in a statement after she submitted a letter of resignation that, “I’m hopeful that the reforms that the secretary and the administration are undertaking will resolve the flaws in the current system that I inherited.”
She also said she was “grateful” for the opportunity to serve in the Minerals Management Service.
Obama said during his press conference that he learned about Birnbaum’s departure Thursday.
“I don't know the circumstances in which this occurred,” he said.
As the president spoke, oil company BP was pumping heavy mud into the leaking pipe a mile under the Gulf of Mexico.
By Thursday afternoon, initial indications showed the flow of oil was slowed.
Technicians temporarily stopped pumping mud into the pipes when they saw too much mud was escaping along with oil, but planned to resume about midnight. If they stop the oil flow completely, they plan to try to seal the pipes permanently with cement.
BP officials said before the pumping started that they gave their “top kill” procedure a 60 percent to 70 percent chance of success.
New estimates from government experts say the amount of oil leaked from the pipes is much greater than BP acknowledged.
The well has been spewing 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil per day, not the 5,000 barrels per day estimated by BP, the panel of experts said.
The new estimates mean the Deepwater Horizon oil leak is far worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that was the biggest in U.S. history.
Even if the oil leak is plugged and sealed, the damage to the Obama administration’s climate policy is likely to last longer.
Obama made concessions to Republicans crafting a climate change bill to allow more offshore oil drilling. He said the domestic oil would help the U.S. economy and create jobs.
This week, he made a pitch for the government to encourage greater use of alternative energy.
Some of his recommendations are part of a Senate bill introduced two weeks ago that would expand U.S. nuclear power production, create incentives for the coal industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fund development of new alternative energy technology.
The Senate still would allow more offshore oil drilling, but states would be given greater authority to prevent it. The expanded state authority was added after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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