Even as new offshore drilling projects are on hold because of the Obama administration's moratorium, BP is being allowed to move ahead with a drilling project several miles off the Alaska coast, The New York Times reports in a remarkable front-page story:

BP's project, called Liberty, has been exempted as regulators have granted it status as an "onshore" project even though it is about three miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea. The reason: it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP. ...

Rather than conducting their own independent analysis, federal regulators, in a break from usual practice, allowed BP in 2007 to write its own environmental review for the project as well as its own consultation documents relating to the Endangered Species Act, according to two scientists from the Alaska office of the federal Mineral Management Service that oversees drilling. ...

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The scientists and other critics say they are worried about a replay of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico because the Liberty project involves a method of drilling called extended reach that experts say is more prone to the types of gas kicks that triggered the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.

BP wouldn't comment, The Times says.

By Kerry Sanders
NBC News

GULF OF MEXICO — Eighty miles from Venice, La., we're bobbing in 3- to 4-foot seas aboard the 230-foot Skye Falgout. The Coast Guard boarded our vessel a few hours ago.

First question: Who are we, and who gave us permission to come to the 5-mile limit of the Deepwater Horizon site?

I guess our four days of communication with the Coast Guard and the Joint Information Center on land didn't reach the folks out here in the Gulf doing all the work.

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As I feared a tongue-lashing, the chief warrant officer caught me by surprise when he said he was "thankful" we are here.

"The world needs to see the hard work going on here," he says.

That, of course, was my goal, so after a few minutes and some marine-band radio chatter, we get the best news a crew could ask for: It's just been approved by those in command — we can park 1.7 miles west of the ongoing operations.

If you are a weekend sailor, you may wonder how you "park" a boat in the current and wind and hold that position for hours.

Once upon a time, you'd use anchors.

Today, the magic of GPS and multiple engines with thrusters holds a ship like ours within a half-foot of its assigned position for more than eight hours.

It's called Dynamic Positioning, and we are thrilled because that maritime technology married with our NBC technology will let us tell viewers what's happening live.

The "Bloom Mobile," named after my good friend, the late NBC correspondent David Bloom, was developed to race across the uneven desert in Iraq as U.S. forces invaded.

Now, the Bloom Mobile is with us at sea, rocking to the motion of the ocean but locked dead onto a satellite 23,000 miles over Earth.

The gyroscopes hold the signal with laser accuracy so we can report live.
There is so much that you can see for yourself in the video, but what is unheralded are the 800 people on 37 vessels and platforms, working 12 hours on, 12 hours off, in some cases for 40 straight days, trying to stop this disaster.

Our goal in the midst of this crisis is to go live from a rig, the Q4000, or the ROV vessel.

I have reported live from the battlefield with U.S. Marines under fire, so as I bob here and recognize this is a crisis, I also know if those in charge will allow it, we can report live as this crisis is being battled.

I am told by the chief warrant officer maybe that will happen — "it just won't be today."

An environmental dispute pitting Louisiana officials against the Obama administration has at least temporarily halted construction of barrier island sand berms intended to keep oil from the BP spill from continuing to foul the state's coastline.

The Interior Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the dredging operation east of the mouth of the Mississippi River halted at 6 p.m. Tuesday. A separate dredging operation west of the river is not affected by the dispute.

Tom Strickland, assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, said Wednesday that the federal government acted only after the state failed to comply with restrictions aimed at protecting the Chandeleur Islands, part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge.

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He said that state officials had begun dredging sand on the east side of the Mississippi River on June 13 in an area south of the site specified in a permit filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Federal agencies allowed the dredging to proceed for a week to give the contractor time to assemble a pipeline to reach the agreed-upon dredging site at Hewes Point, at the northern tip of the 50-mile island chain, Strickland said, but at the end of that period the state asked for another 10-day extension.

He said a "well-documented and through scientific analysis" done years ago by the U.S. Geological Survey indicates that dredging sand from the current site for another week could cause serious damage to the islands, which are critical habitat for shorebirds and also protect the mainland from hurricanes.

"If the material is taken from there, it will accelerate the erosion of the islands … and accelerate their eventual destruction," he said.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines Parish President Bill Nungesser had lobbied the feds hard to grant another extension, warning that "precious time" will be lost laying additional pipe and moving the dredging rig.

"Once again our government resource agencies, which are intended to protect us, are now leaving us vulnerable to the destruction of our coastline and marshes by the impending oil," Nungesser wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to President Barack Obama. "Furthermore, with the threat of hurricanes or tropical storms, we are being put at an increased risk for devastation to our area from the intrusion of oil."

— Mike Brunker

In the wake of President Barack Obama's prime–time speech blasting BP, Gulf-region editorials had a wide array of takeaways.

While BP may be a convenient punching bag, James Gill, a columnist for the Times- Picayune of New Orleans, warns about the dangers of attacking the oil giant too much in an editorial headlined "We hate BP, we need BP."

"The share price continues to plunge. Revenge is a dangerous game. Everyone from Obama on down desperately needs BP to remain capable of meeting all its obligations. Even such a rich conglomerate as this may not be too big to fail."

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The Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal takes a hopeful spin by seeing the Gulf Oil Spill crisis as yet another opportunity for a U.S. president to do something about our national dependence on oil.

PNJ.com's editorial, "Obama right on energy, but will he act on it?" goes through the litany of presidents who have warned about the "dangers of our dependency on oil but did little about it."

"Now President Barack Obama has a similar opportunity.

The spectre of the worst environmental crisis in our history — and potentially one of the most serious economic crises — has given the nation a rare focus on the trap that our energy policy has created for us.

Tuesday night, Obama promised to do something about it.

We'll see."

Still, the Sun Herald, a newspaper for Biloxi-Gulfport and South Mississippi, reminds readers that despite Obama's strong words Tuesday night, "the magnitude of this disaster is far from being known."

"The clock hasn't started yet," said William Hawkins, director of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. Not until the BP well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is capped will we "know what we're dealing with."

Alabama's Press-Register's takeaway is that the best thing the government can do to help people affected by the oil spill is to make sure BP compensates them for their losses quickly and efficiently.

"People should be able to dial one number and get a response to a question or problem without talking to six people. Checks must be given out quickly and with a minimum of fuss.

If President Obama will see to it that a better claims process is established, the recovery he promised Tuesday night can get under way."

— Petra Cahill, msnbc.com