Yet Congress has enacted no meaningful steps to remove the ban against most offshore drilling, despite the almost certain prospect in years ahead that the OCS would substantially boost U.S. domestic oil and natural gas output.
Whether or not the administration puts a temporary stop to deep-water drilling, we can only imagine what effect the added cost of higher premiums for drilling rig insurance and more sophisticated safety equipment is going to be in the months and years ahead.
Earlier Wednesday, well control expert Calvin Barnhill testified that he believes Deepwater Horizon rig workers "got ahead of themselves" as they tried to seal the Macondo well and prepared to move on to drilling a different well.