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Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu initiated a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss bilateral issues, Iran and Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement. ... Netanyahu does speak to Putin by phone from time to time, so Tuesday night's conversation - though not a regular occurence - is by no means unprecedented. Russia is a major player in three areas of major concern to Israel: Iran, Syria and arms sales to the Middle East. ... On Monday, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denied a Haaretz report last week...

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."

During his weekly address to the nation over the Fourth of July weekend, President Obama announced that the Department of Energy was awarding $2 billion in loan guarantees to two energy companies — Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. The plan, Obama said, is for the companies to use the money to construct solar plants and panels to power thousands of homes — and create 5,000 jobs in the process. Only about 1,600 of those jobs are slated to be permanent, though, meaning that the total cost to the taxpayer for each permanent job would exceed $1 million. But over...

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...

A report prepared for President Obama by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and others regarding suggested handling of the BP (NYSE: BP) and Transocean (NYSE: RIG) gulf tragedy may have a spurious heritage. According to Salazar, the report, which included suggestions for 22 safety measures, along with a recommended six-month moratorium on drilling in gulf waters deeper than 500 feet, had been "peer reviewed" by a panel of seven experts. But a majority of the panel members, along with others who worked on the report, have had their feathers ruffled. It seems that they had agreed on an earlier version of...

Mr. Charlie has seen the up and downs over the years in the oil patch off Louisiana's coast, but this could be the toughest slump of all. Earlier this week, the steel rig stationed on the Atchafalaya River graduated what could be one of its last classes of workers prepping for the rigors of offshore life. President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf has sent shudders across the coast's offshore oil industry — where no one knows just how extensive or long-lasting the damage to jobs may be.

Reuters is reporting that Brazil stands to benefit from the BP oil spill disaster as the US moratorium makes more rigs available for other countries. It’s estimated that thirty five rigs are now sitting idle in the Gulf of Mexico. Brazil is already getting inquiries from companies wanting to move their rigs there. Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras already produces about a fourth of the world’s deep water oil. The shortage of rigs could help Brazil become a major oil exporter. What an amazing stroke of good fortune for Obama’s boss, unrepentant Nazi collaborator, George Soros! Soros is also invested...