Obama pulls plans to allow oil drilling off southern Atlantic coast

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is dropping its year-old plan to allow companies to search and drill for oil and natural gas in the Atlantic Ocean off of four southeastern states. Department of Interior Sally Jewell said in a statement that objections from the Pentagon and strong opposition from nearly a hundred coastal communities in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia factored into the decision to not offer leases to companies starting in 2017. Other aspects of the president five-year energy plan, which has already undergone several rounds of public hearings, will move forward, such as an expansion of exploration and possible drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the prospect of limited drilling in the Alaskan Arctic...more