NEW ORLEANS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a revised deepwater oil drilling moratorium after a federal court refused on Thursday to reinstate an earlier ban imposed after BP Plc’s(BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research)(BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) massive oil spill.

The Interior Department reiterated late on Thursday that it would issue the new order on deepwater drilling below 500 feet (152.5 metres) to address the concerns raised by federal courts. It did not say when the new ban would be issued.

NEW ORLEANS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is set to unveil a revised deepwater oil drilling moratorium after an appeals court refused to reinstate an earlier ban imposed after BP Plc’s massive oil spill.

The Interior Department was expected to soon issue the new order on deepwater drilling below 500 feet to address the concerns raised by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Thursday and a lower court last month.

WASHINGTON/NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – The Obama administration said on Thursday it will immediately issue a revised ban on deepwater drilling if an appeals court bars it from reinstating the six-month moratorium it imposed in the wake of the BP oil spill.

However, the administration will not impose a new drilling ban if the federal court in New Orleans supports its initial moratorium, an Interior Department official told Reuters.

WASHINGTON/NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – The Obama administration said on Thursday it will immediately issue a revised ban on deepwater drilling if an appeals court does not allow it to reinstate the six-month moratorium it imposed in the wake of the BP oil spill.

However, it will not impose a new drilling ban if the federal court in New Orleans supports its initial moratorium, an Interior Department official told Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration’s contested moratorium on deepwater drilling will take a larger portion out of U.S. oil production next year than previously thought, the government’s energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday.

Oil production next year is expected to be cut by 82,000 barrels per day, or almost 30 million barrels total, due to delayed or canceled drilling caused by the moratorium, the Energy Information Administration said. That is 17 percent more from the 70,000 bpd in lost output the agency predicted just last month.

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) – U.S. gasoline prices fell to
the lowest level in three weeks due to lower crude oil costs,
the Energy Department said on Tuesday.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline dropped
3.1 cents over the last week to $2.73 a gallon, the
department’s Energy Information Administration said in its
weekly survey of service stations.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Power plants in the eastern half of the United States will have to slash emissions of pollutants blamed for premature deaths under proposed rules issued on Tuesday by federal regulators.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the rules, part of a series of steps to control emissions from power plants, would overturn and toughen clean air regulations issued by former President George W. Bush’s administration. The agency hopes they would begin taking effect in 2012.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States’ six-month drilling ban “makes sense” to allow time to probe the cause of BP’s (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) oil spill, but if the moratorium is extended, companies should move their rigs to search for oil and natural gas in other countries’ waters, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.

BP’s oil leak that begin in April prompted the U.S. government to slap a ban on deepwater exploratory and development drilling, which the federal court last week blocked due to concerns over its unjustifiably harsh impact.

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – Governments will have to grapple with sharply higher upfront costs to deploy clean energy technologies and halve carbon emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.

Action to curb greenhouse gases is going in the “wrong direction”, said the energy advisor to 28 industrialised nations, adding that under current trends carbon emissions would instead double by mid-century.

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – Governments will have to grapple with sharply higher upfront costs to deploy clean energy technologies and halve carbon emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday.

Action to curb greenhouse gases is going in the “wrong direction,” said the energy advisor to 28 industrialized nations, adding that under current trends carbon emissions would instead double by mid-century.