Offshore Drilling

WASHINGTON — Escalating his administration’s response to the disastrous Gulf oil spill, President Barack Obama plans to announce Thursday that a moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling permits will be continued for six months while a presidential commission investigates, a White House aide said.

From the Washington Post: The White House vowed Friday that no expansion of offshore oil drilling will take place until investigations are completed into a rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which is sending thousands of gallons of crude oil lapping toward Louisiana’s shores.