Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s six-month shutdown of 33 rigs to overhaul offshore-drilling regulations might end sooner than planned, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a Senate committee Wednesday.
President Barack Obama ordered a six-month halt on drilling in waters 500 feet and deeper while a commission investigates. The pause has come under fire from lawmakers in coastal states, who say thousands of jobs will be lost, and oil-industry executives, who suggest the nation will become more dependent on foreign oil.
“If the commission were to report earlier, that might change,” Salazar told reporters after the hearing.
