The Obama administration just revealed that it will lift its moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling initially scheduled to end November 30. Under intense pressure from business lobbyists who pointed to the 33 deepwater rigs idling in the Gulf of Mexico, the administration now says newly instituted rules governing things like blowout preventers are sufficient. We hope that was enough time for the the oil companies to cut the phone number for the same long-dead expert from their contingency plans. [Caucus/NYT]
