Battered Oil Industry Sees Options Shrink in Obama Offshore Plan
- Obama foreclosing new drilling rights in Atlantic through 2022
- Decision could be political fodder heading into elections
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President Barack Obama’s decision to close the door to offshore drilling along the U.S. East Coast -- just a year after opening it -- inflicts more pain to an oil industry that’s already battered by falling prices and dropping demand.
The move follows a U.S. government crackdown on methane emissions at nearly a million oil and gas wells, new mandates for fracking on public land and Obama’s rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.