US opens millions of acres in Gulf of Mexico to deepwater drilling as EPA suspends new BP contracts

The US Environmental Protection Agency is suspending the oil and gas company BP from any new federal contracts. In a statement released Wednesday morning, the agency said the company’s role in the 2010 gulf oil spill, which killed 11 people and caused widespread environmental destruction, demonstrated “a lack of business integrity.” But the corporation will be allowed to continue operating their many existing federal contracts on- and off-shore. The US government is also moving ahead to increase deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, despite opposition from environmental groups. It will be leasing millions of new acres of seabed to a number of corporations. FSRN’s Alice Ollstein reports.