White House went ahead with drilling ban even though it would cost 23,000 jobs

What happened to the Obama Administration's laser-focus on jobs?

It's a laser alright, as I've remarked before: a death star laser.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the latest atrocity.

Senior Obama administration officials concluded the federal moratorium on deepwater oil drilling would cost roughly 23,000 jobs, but went ahead with the ban because they didn't trust the industry's safety equipment and the government's own inspection process, according to previously undisclosed documents.

Critics of the moratorium, including Gulf Coast political figures and oil-industry leaders, have said it is crippling the region's economy, and some have called on the administration to make public its economic analysis. A federal judge who in June threw out an earlier six-month moratorium faulted the administration for playing down the economic effects.

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