NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court dealt the Obama administration a setback on Thursday when it refused to halt deepwater oil drilling, but analysts said they did not expect companies to begin operations soon.
The White House sought to suspend deepwater drilling of new oil wells in the area temporarily while it investigated the April 20 rig explosion that unleashed BP Plc's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and adopted new, stricter safety regulations.
