The federal government on Tuesday officially ended its moratorium on deepwater drilling, which has left a number of Gulf of Mexico rigs idled. “We have made and continue to make significant progress in reducing the risk associated with deepwater drilling,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. However, unless the government speeds up the permitting process for new projects, its decision “will give way to a de facto moratorium, which will continue to cripple the already hard-hit Gulf region and cost more than 175,000 American jobs a year,” said Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.

Read more: Houston Chronicle.