Zinke is officially rolling back offshore oil and gas production safety rules
Associate Editor, Think Progress
Safety rules for the oil and gas industry introduced after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster are officially being rolled back by the Trump administration.
In a notice that will appear in the Federal Register Friday, the Department of Interior removes or revises certain rules focusing on safety requirements during the time an oil platform is producing oil and gas (as opposed to the drilling process).
Removing these regulations will help boost fossil fuel production, the notice explains.
“This rule,” it states, “supports the Administration’s objective of facilitating energy dominance by encouraging increased domestic oil and gas production and reducing unnecessary burdens on stakeholders, while ensuring safety and environmental protection.”
The rule change removes the mandate that independent third parties certify safety devices ensuring effective operations in extreme conditions. Instead, oil company employees will now be allowed to examine these devices themselves.
Companies will also no longer be required to notify the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) of “false alarms” that may come from safety equipment sensors. Companies will also only be required to inform officials when initial production of oil and gas begins at the site, rather than every subsequent time production starts.
This set of rules was not the main regulation introduced under the Obama administration after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people and spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. However, there have also been proposals to weaken parts of the central regulation, the Well Control Rule, as well.
The Interior’s notice comes from an administration pushing to expand offshore drilling along the country’s coastline — something the majority of local leaders oppose.
The news also comes shortly after the department announced it would auction off 78 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for further oil and gas extraction. And at a conference earlier this month, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reportedly told the oil and gas industry “the government should work for you.”
The BSEE in a statement said that it incorporates the industry’s “best science and best practices…to ensure safety and environmental sustainability.”
But, reacting to the news, the director of the Sierra Club’s lands protection program, Athan Manuel, stated, “Nothing could be more reckless than seeking to expose more of our coasts to the risks of drilling while simultaneously increasing those risks by rolling back commonsense safety standards designed to protect workers and the environment from disasters like Deepwater Horizon.”
