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PRESIDENT Barack Obama opened vast swathes of US coastal waters to drilling for oil and natural gas last week, triggering speculation that he was seeking to lay fertile ground to pass his climate bill.
A prior effort to expand offshore drilling by George W. Bush in 2008 was challenged in court on environmental grounds and later scrapped by Obama. The new plan promises stronger environmental safeguards. It will allow commercial drilling operations in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to be expanded, and supports exploratory drilling off southern Atlantic…
