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White House: No New Offshore Oil Drilling

   VOA News 30 April 2010
   Gulf Oil Spill Creeps Towards Mississippi Delta, 29 Apr 2010

Photo: NASA

   Gulf Oil Spill Creeps Towards Mississippi Delta, 29 Apr 2010

   A  White  House  official  says there will be no new offshore drilling
   until  a  review of the oil well accident that caused a major spill in
   the Gulf of Mexico.
   In  an  interview  on ABC television Friday, White House adviser David
   Axelrod  said  officials  want  to determine what happened and whether
   there was something "unique and preventable."
   President  Barack  Obama  recently lifted a moratorium on new offshore
   drilling to increase domestic oil supplies.
   Oil  from  the leaking well reached the U.S. coastline late Thursday.Â
   It  touched  the  shore near the mouth of the Mississippi River in the
   southern  state  of  Louisiana, where Governor Bobby Jindal declared a
   state of emergency.
   There  is  concern about the potentially devastating ecological impact
   of the spill. The oil threatens birds, fish, shrimp and other wildlife
   in the seafood-rich area.
   Emergency crews are deploying containment booms as more of the massive
   oil slick approaches land.
   Meteorologists  say winds have been constant for several days, pushing
   the  slick  from  the  site  of the damaged Horizon Deepwater oil rig,
   which  exploded  and  sank  a  week  ago.  Marine experts say that in
   addition  to  Louisiana,  the  slick  could  affect  parts of Alabama,
   Florida, Mississippi and Texas. Â
   Thursday,  President Obama ordered federal agencies to take aggressive
   steps  in  response  to what his government now calls an "oil spill of
   national  significance."Â   The  president dispatched key officials to
   the  region  and  directed  the  use  of government resource to assist
   containment and cleanup efforts.
   U.S.  Homeland  Security  Secretary  Janet  Napolitano  is  one of the
   officials  headed  to  the  Gulf  region.  She says the government is
   determined to discover what caused the explosion that preceded the oil
   leak.   The blast injured several workers, leaving at least 11 others
   missing and feared dead.
   The  oil  spill  is  five times larger than first estimated.  The oil
   company British Petroleum operated the rig.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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