Obama Administration About to Lift Ban on Deep-Water Oil Drilling

Though it's too late for some drilling operations, the Obama administration is on the brink of announcing an end to its ban on deep-water oil drilling.

Carter Rolle, in the office of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, told Sunshine State News Tuesday, "The key to getting us to this point is the new safety rules, rules that should have been in place before the Deepwater Horizon accident." He said he expects the ban-lifting announcement to come just after 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The ban on deep-water drilling has been in place since just after April 20, when the blowout of a BP well in the Gulf of Mexico caused an oil spill that created the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history -- and severely worsened the economy of an already bottoming Gulf Coast economy.

However, many deep-water drillers have already moved off, away from the U.S. coast, too far to rehire the American drillers who lost jobs after the moratorium.