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The Coast Guard says BP is having some
success slowing the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by injecting mud but
the fix isn't done yet.

      Coast Guard Lt. Commander Tony Russell said Thursday reports
that Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the operation, had
called the procedure a success were incorrect. He said Allen said
that the flow of mud was stopping some of the oil and gas but had a
ways to go before it proved successful.

      BP spokesman Tom Mueller said the effort that started Wednesday
to plug the blown-out with mud, called a top kill, was continuing.

      Mueller said BP PLC doesn't anticipate being able to say
anything definitive on its success until later Thursday.


 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.

      Controversial lease sales off the coast of Alaska will be
delayed pending the results of the commission's investigation, and
lease sales planned in the Western Gulf and off the coast of
Virginia will be canceled, the aide said, speaking on condition of
anonymity ahead of a midday Obama news conference.

      Those steps, along with new oversight and safety standards also
to be announced, are the results of a 30-day safety review of
offshore drilling conducted by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at
Obama's direction. Salazar briefed Obama on its conclusions
Wednesday night in the Oval Office.


      With the moves, Obama is exerting control over the response to
the five-week-old spill amid growing criticism about leadership
from the White House, even as BP's efforts to stanch the leak are
finally showing some promise.


      The new announcements also could be an early sign of a
fundamental shift in the administration's policies on offshore
drilling, which Obama promoted and hoped to expand prior to the
April 20 explosion of a drilling rig off the Gulf Coast. The
accident killed 11 people and unleashed a sickening gusher of
millions of gallons of crude that's now begun to wash up on land,
crippling Louisiana's fishing and tourism industries along with
seabirds and other wildlife.


      The exact causes of the accident have not been determined but
congressional investigators have released details suggesting BP
ignored warning signs of instability in the exploratory well they
were attempting to cap when the explosion occurred.


      Obama, who last Saturday appointed a presidential commission to
conduct a wide-ranging, six-month investigation of the causes of
the spill, will travel to the Gulf Coast on Friday, his second
visit since the accident.


      Thursday's news conference in the White House East Room
represents the first time he's opening himself to extensive media
questioning since the accident occurred.


      The proposed drilling affected by Thursday's announcements
include Shell Oil's plans to begin exploratory drilling this summer
on Arctic leases as far as 140 miles off Alaskan shores. Now those
wells will not be considered until 2011.


      Underscoring the tricky politics of oil drilling, which can cut
across party lines, that sparked a protest from Democratic Sen.
Mark Begich of Alaska, who issued a press release early Thursday
contending Shell could move forward safely and saying "another
year of delay costs money and Alaska jobs."


      In Virginia, the lease sales that have been canceled were in an
area of about 2.9 million acres 50 miles or more offshore. The
sales had already been postponed indefinitely after the spill.


      As for the Western Gulf, there was to have been a lease sale in
New Orleans in August of 18.8 million acres, located from 9 to
about 250 miles offshore. That has been canceled.


      It was just in March that Obama announced a new policy on
offshore drilling, throwing open a huge swath of East Coast waters
and other protected areas in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to
drilling. That expansion now looks like it will be dramatically
rolled back for some time to come.


      Under Thursday's announcement, drilling of new wells in shallow
waters is expected to be allowed to continue with additional safety
requirements.


      For all his power to make such rules, however, when it comes to
stopping the spill the president must depend mainly on the company
that was leasing the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig when the
explosion occurred. BP PLC began a new effort Wednesday to plug the
mile-deep well with heavy drilling mud, a tactic never before tried
at such depths. The company hoped to know by Thursday afternoon
whether the tactic would finally slow the oil spill; as of
Wednesday night executives reported no problems so far.

      At the Capitol on Thursday, lawmakers will grill various
officials at five congressional hearings. Topics will include the
Gulf spill's environmental damage, the administration's response
and the impact on small businesses.


      Associated Press Writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

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Environmental News

The Coast Guard says BP is having some
success slowing the Gulf of Mexico oil leak by injecting mud but
the fix isn't done yet.


'Top kill' effort slowing oil leak but fix isn't done yet

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