In Washington on Thursday, President Obama addressed widening public anger over the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, ordering a moratorium on offshore drilling in U.S. waters.

The announcement reverses a previous decision to expand offshore drilling off American coastlines.

At the White House press conference, the President also said there was too much complacency in goverment prior to the spill, admitting that he had been wrong to believe that oil companies were prepared to deal with a worst-case scenario.

New estimates suggest that this spill at least twice the size than the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, previously the biggest in U.S. history.

In good news, the untested "top kill" procedure attempted by BP to cap the stricken well appears to be working. After being suspended when engineers saw too much drilling fluid escaping with the gushing oil, the procedure resumed Thursday afternoon.

President Obama arrives in Louisiana today to survey the damage caused by the spill.

Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

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