Moratorium

China has joined Germany, France, Russia and other nations now pledging to review their atomic energy programs in the aftermath of the nuclear crisis sparked by Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami. FOR THE RECORD: Energy in China: A March 19 Business article about China's nuclear power industry misspelled the name of Yang Fuqiang, senior advisor on climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, as Yan Fuqiang. ? Premier Wen Jiabao announced this week that China would put a moratorium on construction of new nuclear power plants while it updates safety standards.

The Obama administration issued the first new deep-water drilling permit for the Gulf of Mexico since the BP oil spill, stoking cautious optimism Monday among some industry executives and Gulf Coast politicians about local oil and gas exploration. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement approved a permit for the Houston-based company Noble Energy to drill a so-called bypass well in 6,500 feet of water about 70 miles southeast of Venice, La. The new well would track one started in April 2010 but plugged two months later, when the government established a moratorium on deep-water drilling in response to BP's well blowout.

The long congressional battle over specially-directed earmark spending came to a quiet close Tuesday as the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee announced a two-year ban on the practice. The decision to prohibit earmarks reflects the political stalemate that arose as President Obama vowed to veto any legislation with the congressionally-directed spending. Republicans had already agreed to abandon the practice. "The handwriting is clearly on the wall," said Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii)

A judge handed Los Angeles a setback in its faltering drive to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries, granting a preliminary injunction on Friday that bars the city from enforcing key provisions in its controversial six-month-old ordinance. The decision, issued by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr, leaves the city with limited power to control pot stores, which opened by the hundreds, angering neighborhood activists when city officials failed to enforce a 2007 moratorium.

WASHINGTON -- An effort by Senate Republicans to temporarily ban earmarks failed on the Senate floor early Tuesday. Passage of the measure, sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) would have instituted a moratorium on lawmaker-directed funds through the 2013 fiscal year. But because passage required a suspension of the Senate's regular procedure, it required 67 votes ? two-thirds ? of the chamber, to pass. The procedural motion to bring the amendment to a pending food-safety bill to the floor was defeated by a 39-56 vote.

Hundreds of Southern California defense contractors may have to cut jobs or go out of business if Congress approves a moratorium on federal earmarks, industry executives warned. More than $3 billion in earmarks ? or money directed to specific projects ? flowed into California this year for defense work, much of it funneled to Southland aerospace companies. But with the federal government staring at a staggering $1.4-trillion deficit, the so-called pork-barrel spending has drawn fire from critics who see earmarks as a symbol of pay-to-play politics and wasteful government spending.

Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to abandon the use of budget earmarks that direct money to favored projects, setting up an unusual alliance with the White House and exerting pressure on reluctant Democratic lawmakers to follow suit. The vote by the GOP caucus for a two-year moratorium on earmarks is not binding on its members, but it provided an early example of the influence of the conservative "tea party" movement after the midterm election. House Republicans are expected to take a similar step Thursday.

An Obama administration report last summer wrongly implied that independent oil industry experts had reviewed and approved its moratorium on deep-water drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, an investigation by the Interior Department's inspector general has found. The finding caps a controversy that began when a May 27 Interior Department report on stepped-up safety measures, including a moratorium on deep-water drilling, stated that the recommendations "have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.

A dispute among influential Republican lawmakers over a ban on "earmark" spending threatens an area of potential bipartisan agreement between the GOP and White House in the aftermath of last week's midterm election. The incoming House Republican majority has proposed extending a moratorium on earmarks, which are funds requested by individual lawmakers for specific projects back home. On Tuesday, conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina said that he would press his GOP colleagues in the Senate to adopt a similar moratorium when lawmakers returned to Washington next week.

Two L.A. Coliseum commissioners Thursday urged their board to reconsider the surprise decision to lift a moratorium on raves that had been in place since the drug overdose death of a 15-year-old girl in June after she attended a massive festival at the stadium. Commissioners Rick Caruso, a shopping center magnate who owns the Grove, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said there was no advance notice that the moratorium might be lifted at the Wednesday meeting, from which both were absent.