There's more bad news on the economic front today. The official unemployment rate has climbed to 9.8 percent. An estimated 15 million Americans are out of work this holiday season.

The high unemployment statistics make it even more troubling that the administration has chosen to halt offshore oil and natural gas development in the eastern Gulf, the Atlantic and Pacific for at least the next seven years. As we reported yesterday, opening those areas to development could have created 57,000 high-paying jobs.

The ban on opening new offshore areas to drilling was only one of several news stories and revelations that have raised questions about policy decisions in the past few days:

• Former Vice President Al Gore admitted that he supported ethanol purely for political reasons. "I had a certain... more »

The lead investigator for the presidential panel examining the Deepwater Horizon accident yesterday said he has found no evidence that anyone involved in the Macondo well took shortcuts to save money.

Fred H. Bartlit Jr. told the commission, "To date we have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety." His findings disputed the claims of members of Congress and other investigators who have accused BP, Transocean and Halliburton of cutting corners. The Macondo well blowout killed 11 workers and resulted in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

After hearing Bartlit's preliminary findings into the causes of the accident, Commission co-chairman William Reilly told... more »

Officials from BP, Transocean and Halliburton are on Capitol Hill today testifying about the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.

Saying it's inappropriate to speculate on the cause of the accident before the investigation is complete, BP America President and Chairman Lamar McKay outlined the company's ongoing efforts to cap the well at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing this morning.

In this testimony, McKay explained that the company is:

• Deploying biodegradable dispersants to break the oil into small droplets allowing for natural processes to degrade it.

• Readying a "top hat" containment dome that can be placed over the worst leak. This dome is smaller than the first one lowered to the seabed a few days ago. Weighing just two tons, it will allow heat from the spilling oil... more »

The U.S. Coast Guard is expected to hold another news conference at 4:00 East Coast time today about the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.

In the meantime, Americans all over the country are monitoring the efforts to stop the flow of oil. At last report, about 1,000 barrels of oil per day continued to leak from the bent drill pipe, and responders were planning to use remote-controlled robots to turn valves in the blowout preventer to shut the well.

Despite the blaze and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, President Obama said last week that he has no plans to reconsider his plans for expanded offshore drilling.

According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, the president remains convinced that the nation needs more domestic drilling. "We need the increased production," Gibbs said. "The president... more »

Yesterday author, lawyer and blogger Byron King sent me a copy of an article, published in Outstanding Investments newsletter, expressing his thoughts on the tragic loss of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Byron writes that the accident "is hitting home" with him. He recently visited a drillship owned by Transocean, which is the same company that owns and operated the rig that caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico. What he learned apparently gave him a profound sense of respect for the crew.

Byron spent a couple of days onboard Transocean's Discoverer Inspiration, which is a mammoth drillship searching the Gulf for oil and natural gas under contract to Chevron. He says he observed a "culture of safety" even before he was allowed on the ship. He was required to "go through two days... more »