U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday announced a series of steps he said his administration will take unilaterally to boost domestic oil production as gasoline prices across the country hover just under $4 a gallon. In his weekly address, President Obama acknowledged that measures to break down administrative barriers to additional drilling don't represent a quick fix. But, he argued, it makes "good sense" to expand oil production by conducting annual lease sales in certain parts of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve and extending across the board leases in the Gulf of Mexico where drilling was disrupted by the six-month moratorium imposed last year in the wake of the BP oil spill. President Obama said he's directing the Department of Interior to speed up its evaluation of oil and gas resources in the mid- and south-Atlantic and hopes to lease new areas in the Gulf as well as Alaska. The President also wants to implement incentives that would encourage oil and gas companies to develop leases early on. In his address, President Obama reiterated his call to end tax credits for the industry.
