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Bill Maher in the middle of last year's crisis in the Gulf of Mexico wrongly stated on national television that Brazil had gotten off of oil 30 years ago. With great irony, President Obama announced Saturday that he wants America to become a major buyer of - wait for it! - Brazilian oil drilled offshore: Traders are also concerned about protests and tensions in a number of other oil-producing nations in the region. Mr Obama spoke of the US's desire to secure more of its oil from Brazil in future after talks with his counterpart, President Dilma Rousseff, in Brasilia...

"This administration's policies have been designed to drive up the cost of energy in the name of reducing pollution, in the name of making very expensive alternative fuels more economically competitive."

WASHINGTON — After two court rulings against its six-month moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling, the Obama administration on Monday announced a revised ban that it described as essential and appropriate. The Interior Department said the revised ban incorporates "new evidence regarding safety concerns" as well as new procedures to gather industry feedback. Moreover, the revision suspends drilling not based on water depth, it said, "but on the basis of the drilling configurations and technologies."

The Obama administration said on Friday it is essential that its ban on deepwater oil drilling be restored after a court struck it down and promised a revised moratorium would be announced soon. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters in California he will make an announcement on a new ban on deepwater drilling in the "next several days." His comments came a day after a federal court refused to reinstate the six-month ban on deepwater drilling below 500 feet, which the Obama administration imposed after BP Plc's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Court of Appeals...

WASHINGTON/NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The Obama administration said on Thursday it will immediately issue a revised ban on deepwater drilling if an appeals court does not allow it to reinstate the six-month moratorium it imposed in the wake of the BP oil spill...

Govt: Obama Drilling Ban to Cut Supply Sharply Thursday, 08 Jul 2010 09:42 AM The Obama administration's contested moratorium on deepwater drilling will take a larger portion out of U.S. oil production next year than previously thought, the government's energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday. Oil production next year is expected to be cut by 82,000 barrels per day, or almost 30 million barrels total, due to delayed or canceled drilling caused by the moratorium, the Energy Information Administration said. That is 17 percent more from the 70,000 bpd in lost output the agency predicted just last month. Monthly production...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the moratorium was a rational response to the unprecedented emergency of the BP oil spill. In a court filing late Tuesday, the Interior Department said that the six-month ban on drilling in more than 500 feet of water, imposed in late May, was necessary to allow time to adopt stricter safety and environmental regulation of deepwater wells. The action has put hundreds of people who operate and service deepwater wells out of work and brought...

Complete title: Most Energy Experts Consulted by Interior Dept. Oppose ‘Six Month Blanket Moratorium’ on Offshore Drilling Eight of the 15 experts consulted by the Interior Department for a report about oil drilling safety -- a report commissioned by President Barack Obama -- said they disagreed with the report’s call for a six-month ban on offshore drilling. They outlined their objections in a June 8 to Louisiana Sens. Mary Landrieu (D) and David Vitter (R) and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R). The energy experts also said the final version of the report was "modified” from their review of the draft in...