On April 20th, an oil rig explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, caused an Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, that left 17 workers injured and 11 missing and presumed dead. Oil is spilling from a well 5000 feet below sea level, discharging 200,000 gallons of crude oil a day according to the official estimate. It is estimated that more than 6 million gallons of crude oil have spewed into the Gulf so far.
The Gulf Coast consist of 5 States Touching the Gulf of Mexico. Those states are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. 5.19.10 Pres. Obama & Pres. Calderón hold a joint press conference . The key issues . The State Dinner: video and pictures.
5.27.10 Pres. Obama's news conference on the BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Highlights of President Barack Obama's new orders on offshore oil drilling safety.
SAFER DRILLING: Obama ordered a number of changes designed to ensure offshore drilling is safer going forward, based on a 30-day review by Salazar, including:
* Extending a moratorium on new deep water drilling leases for six months, until the presidential commission on the spill completes its work.
* Suspending Shell Oil's plans to begin exploratory drilling this summer on Arctic leases as far as 140 miles off the Alaska coast. Now those wells will not be considered until 2011.
* Canceling pending lease sales off the coast of Virginia and in the western Gulf of Mexico.
* Suspending action on 33 deep water exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf.
* Salazar announced additional safety measures, including requiring more thorough inspections of the "blowout preventers" designed to prevent oil spills. The blowout preventer on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig failed.
Elizabeth Birnbaum, the director of Minerals Management Service - the department that oversees oil and gas drilling - resigned "effective immediately."
Pres. Obama put Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commandant in charge of BP's oil spill.
7.15.10 BP reports: no oil leaking from ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico. Timeline of the oil spill.
7.16.10 Cameras show the disastrous Gulf oil leak before and after it is capped.
