Trump Administration Moves To Roll Off Offshore Drilling Safety Regulations: NPR

The Trump Administration is rolling back some of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The change in the world of offshore oil and gas storage and blowing out – a sudden and uncontrollable release of crude oil.

In its summary of the rule changes, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement states the "revisions to the regulations pertaining to offshore oil and gas drilling, completions, workovers, and decommissioning … to ensure safety and environmental protection, while correcting and reducing certain unnecessary regulatory burdens under the existing regulations. "

The rule will be published in the Federal Register next week. The move comes after the ninth anniversary of the Deepwater disaster, in which 11 workers were killed and 4 million barrels of oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days.

The BSEE was created in the Department of the Interior in 2011, in the wake of the Deepwater disaster. In 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, the BSEE issued new rules governing offshore drilling, including requirements for design and monitoring.

Several of these rules targeted devices called blowout preventers; the failure of such a device contributed to the Deepwater explosion. The oil industry BSEE is weakening the federal safety requirements for offshore drilling, and now, along with other actions by the Trump administration to ease regulations on oil and gas companies.

The BSEE is proposing revisions to 59 of the 342 provisions in the 2016 rule, saying that it wants to address the issue. One revision in the draft rule reduces the time of a safety test from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Another limits of the number of connection points to a blowout preventer, to reduce potential failure points. Other revisions correct quotes in the original rule.

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announces the revised rule in Port Fourchon, La., Where he has a common sense approach to safety.

"Incorporating the best available science, best practices and technological innovations of the past decade, the rule eliminates unnecessary regulatory burdens while maintaining safety and environmental protection offshore," he said. "Under President Trump's leadership, America is a leader on energy and greater prosperity."

The oil and gas industry's trade group and lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, praised the revisions as protecting workers and the environment. "The revision strengthens the rule and enhances a robust regulatory framework to ensure updated, modern, and safe technologies, best practices, and operations," API's Vice President of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito said in a statement.

But environmental advocacy groups are decrying the changes.

Weakening offshore drilling standards would mean that it would be more important to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"One of the most important actions we took, as a nation, in response to the BP-style disaster at sea," NRDC spokesman Bob Deans said. "The rule draws directly from the lessons learned from this debate.

Deans added, "That's irresponsible, reckless and wrong."

The NRDC and other groups say the proposal goes too far in accommodating the oil and gas industry.

"The Trump administration is in the US," Diane Hoskins, Oceana campaign director for conservation group, told Reuters. "We should be implementing new safety reforms, not rolling back the current situation."