Feds say impact from drilling moratorium minimal

The deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico has not increased unemployment in the region, says a new report from the Obama administration that counters the dire predictions of oil industry officials and Gulf Coast residents. The report, being released at a Senate hearing today, says the moratorium imposed after the BP oil spill might have temporarily cost 8,000 to 12,000 jobs on oil rigs and elsewhere. But it found no net job loss in the region, thanks in part to a big hiring push for cleanup crews and massive spending by BP on the recovery effort. The scenario is far rosier than described in some previous reports, including an Interior Department estimate over the summer that said there could be 23,000 jobs lost from the moratorium. The new report said other surveys, including the one by Interior, measured worst-case scenarios that never came to pass. Instead, the report said, the majority of rig workers have kept their jobs during the moratorium as the oil industry used the opportunity to repair rigs or kept skilled workers employed in anticipation of resumed deepwater drilling. See the full story here.