The Trump administration on Thursday proposed opening nearly all U.S. offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, a move aimed at boosting domestic energy production that sparked protests from coastal states, environmentalists and the tourism industry. The effort to open previously off-limits acreage in the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans comes less than eight years after BP Plc’s ( BP.L ) Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – the largest in American history. The disaster caused billions of dollars in economic damage and led former President Barack Obama’s to increase regulation of the industry. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said on Thursday the department’s draft National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2019 to 2024 would make over 90 percent of the outer continental shelf’s total acreage available for leasing to drillers, a national record. That would reverse the Obama administration […]