PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES NEW DRILLING REGULATIONS; CHIEF REGULATOR RESIGNS Today President Obama is announcing new drilling regulations hours after Elizabeth Birnbaum resigned under pressure as head of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the lead agency overseeing US oil and gas drilling. The MMS has come under fire for lax inspections of the Deepwater Horizon rig prior to its April 20 explosion and an Inspector General’s report that identified inappropriate behavior and industry relationships by agency officials.
Journalist threatened with arrest. Emerging reports are raising the question of just how much of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill journalists are able to document. When CBS tried to film a beach with heavy oil on the shore in South Pass, Louisiana, a boat of BP contractors, and two Coast Guard officers, told them to turn around, or be arrested. “This is BP’s rules, it’s not ours,” someone aboard the boat said. Coast Guard officials told CBS that they’re looking into it. As the Coast Guard is a branch of the Armed Forces, it brings into question how closely the government and BP are working together to keep details of the disaster in the dark. OIL LIVE FEED BELOW www.pbs.org Video Rating: 5 / 5