Obama seeks new drill ban as oil still spews

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The White House was set on Wednesday to step up its legal battle to keep deepwater drilling on hold in the Gulf of Mexico following the worst oil spill in US history. A US judge on Tuesday overturned a six-month ban on drilling in water deeper than 152 metres after an appeal by drillers who stand to lose business.
Interior secretary Ken Salazar said he would seek to replace the ban with a new order clarifying why it was necessary. The moratorium was imposed after a well operated by British oil company BP ruptured on April 20 and began spewing millions of gallons of crude into the sea. “We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP’s well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling,” Mr Salazar said in a statement. Mr Salazar was due to testify to a Senate subcommittee at 1500 GMT on Wednesday, along with Michael Bromwich, the new head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy, which under its previous name the Minerals and Management Service was blamed for failing to police the energy industry adequately.
The crisis has thrust its way to the top of President Barack Obama’s crowded domestic agenda as his administration seeks to counter growing public criticism that the federal response to the spill has been too slow and ineffective. In one sign of how many issues Mr Obama is juggling, he was forced to cancel an energy policy meeting with senators on Wednesday after summoning his top general in Afghanistan to upbraid him for inflammatory comments in a magazine article. The senators were to have discussed the process for passing energy and climate laws this year.
In the Gulf, BP appeared to be slowly getting on top of the spill, reporting that it siphoned off 27,000 barrels of oil on Tuesday, the highest daily amount yet. Between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels a day are still gushing from the well, according to US government estimates, and efforts to finally plug the leak rest on two relief wells now being dri-lled that are due to be completed in August.