Obama Suspends New Offshore Drilling

Last month, President Obama was heralding new plans for offshore drilling; on Friday, however, he ordered that no new offshore drilling leases be issued until we can ensure that they have the safeguards necessary to prevent disasters like the one currently devastating the Gulf coast. "We are making sure any leases going forward have those safeguards," said Obama after ordering Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to report to him within 30 days on what, exactly, these new safeguards should be. Obama’s announcement is not expected to have an immediate impact—his new plan for offshore drilling wouldn’t allow leases to be issued until 2012 at the earliest anyway.