The Hill:

The Commerce Department estimates that the federal freeze on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling imposed after the BP spill began will result in the temporary loss of up to 12,000 Gulf Coast jobs and a $1.8 billion reduction in spending.
The department — which offered the projections at a Senate Small Business Committee hearing Thursday — calls the job losses the “regrettable” result of the freeze, but notes the ban’s impact is significantly less than initially feared.
But Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the committee chairwoman, said the six-month ban imposed in late May is having a devastating effect.
“Today, thousands of Gulf Coast businesses are fighting their way out of this government-imposed economic disaster that not only threatens jobs and businesses — including oil and gas field services, transportation and fabrication companies — but also a way of life, just as surely as the massive oil spill does, and perhaps even more,” Landrieu said in prepared remarks.