Revising an earlier offshore drilling moratorium that had been enjoined by a federal court, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a directive yesterday that suspends the drilling of offshore wells that use subsea blowout preventers (BOPs) or employ BOPs on a floating facility.  According to Sec. Salazar, this “pause” in deepwater E&P operations is necessary to allow for the collection of information regarding the ongoing BP oil spill, to assess national resources for wild well interventions, and to provide time for offshore operators to demonstrate that they have the capability to respond to an incident in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.  Read more in the New York Times.