Other responses:

Representative Doc Hastings of Washington, the senior Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, said Obama is adding limits on Alaska exploration, restricting East Coast development and keeping the West Coast off limits.

“This hardly, in my view, looks like a move toward energy independence,” Hastings said in an interview.

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The U.S. oil industry’s biggest lobbying group called today’s announcement a good step.

“Exploring for and developing our nation’s offshore resources could help generate more than a trillion dollars in revenue and create thousands of jobs to add to the already 9.2 million jobs supported by today’s oil and natural gas industry,” Jack Gerard, president of the Washington-based American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement.