Trump Administration Aims to Trim Rules on Offshore Drilling
DALLAS — The Trump administration on Friday proposed to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and gas drilling that were imposed after the deadly 2010 rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The administration said the rules are an unnecessary burden on industry and rolling them back will encourage more energy production.
An offshore-drilling group welcomed the rollback, while environmentalists said President Donald Trump was raising the risk of more deadly oil spills.
A division of the Interior Department published the proposed change Friday in the Federal Register. The public will have until Jan. 29 to comment.
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Lest we forget, here is a reminder of the BP Gulf of Mexico spill.
Deepwater Horizon – BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations. 4 million barrels of oil flowed from the damaged Macondo well over an 87-day period, before it was finally capped on July 15, 2010. On December 15, 2010, the United States filed a complaint in District Court against BP Exploration & Production and several other defendants alleged to be responsible for the spill.
This webpage provides information and materials on EPA’s enforcement response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, settlements with several of the defendants, including the record-setting settlement with BP Exploration & Production for an unprecedented $5.5 billion Clean Water Act penalty and up to $8.8 billion in natural resource damages.
Source: https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-bp-gulf-mexico-oil-spill
