Obama restores East Coast drilling ban, cites BP

WASHINGTON: BP's oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is dead; the political fallout is very much alive. The Obama administration says it will not open new areas of the Atlantic seaboard and eastern Gulf to drilling, reversing a decision to hunt for oil and gas that the president himself announced three weeks before the largest offshore oil spill in US history.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar acknowledged Wednesday: ``We are adjusting our strategy.'' Salazar said the BP spill taught officials a number of lessons, ``most importantly that we need to proceed with caution.''

The oil and gas industry and many Republicans said the Obama administration was stifling domestic oil production and contradicting the will of recession-weary voters eager for new jobs.