At least 4 deepwater drilling rigs have left American Gulf waters for Africa due to ongoing Obama moratorium, increasing our dependence on foreign oil

.
9/17/10, "Transocean pulls another rig out of the Gulf of Mexico," Houston Business Journal

"So far, four rigs have been pulled from the Gulf due to the drilling ban"...and moved to Africa, 2 to Egypt, one to Nigeria, one to Republic of Congo:

• Transocean sent the Discoverers America to Egypt in late September due to the moratorium.
  

"Earlier this month (September), Transocean reported that its

• Marianas rig was bound for Nigeria, under contract by Italy's ENI, which is set to drill the Triton field.

In July, Houston-based Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) moved its

• Ocean Confidence rig out of the Gulf of Mexico to the Republic of Congo and
  

• its Ocean Endeavor rig out of the Gulf to Egypt.

In its fleet report issued Tuesday, Transocean (NYSE: RIG) also said that it yanked two of its shallow-water rigs off the market because of

• a lack of a demand."

The court has ruled at least twice that Obama's moratorium is illegal and drilling must proceed. Why are people acting as if Salazar makes the final decision? It's not true.

11/23, FrontPage: "In the period during which Salazar had imposed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico,

• the Interior Secretary continued his brazen talk.

“We will only lift the moratorium when I, as Secretary of Interior, am comfortable that we have significantly reduced those risks. So the moratorium dragged on–hurting jobs, drilling, and tourism."