Offshore Drilling Moratorium Lifted
By: Dylan Brooks
Updated: October 12, 2010
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the massive Gulf oil spill that followed, President Obama ordered a moratorium on offshore drilling. On Tuesday, that ban was lifted, with some new restrictions.
Offshore rigs must meet higher federal standards for safety, spill response and blowout containment. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the new restrictions are important "to ensure that we came up with the right set of rules and the right set of safety mechanism to ensure that something that obviously will always carry some risk also has within it a containment strategy that will work for the American people."
Before rigs can start drilling again, company CEO's must prove that the rigs are complying with all rules.
