Trump Administration Is Ending Safety Regulations Enacted After Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

[Rhiannon12866]

The Trump administration is undoing the safety and environmental regulations put in place by President Obama after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 people and, for weeks, dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, amounting to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The catastrophic environmental event killed nearly 1 million birds along the Gulf Coast and led to BP paying $18.7 billion in civil penalties and damages. According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the regulatory changes will save extraction companies some $288 million over 10 years.

The 2016 rules implemented by the Obama administration focused on trying to ensure the safety of drilling equipment, several pieces of which failed during the Deepwater Horizon spill. It also shut off certain portions of the American coastline from drilling. From the New York Times:

The Obama-era rules, written in 2016, tightened controls on blowout preventers, devices that are intended to stop explosions in undersea oil and gas wells, and called for rig operators to have third parties certify that the safety devices worked under extreme conditions. In the Deepwater Horizon spill, a supposedly fail-safe blowout preventer failed after a section of drill pipe buckled.

President Trump showed his intent to undo drilling restrictions and safety regulations for offshore drilling in an executive order this April. The Department of Interior is publishing the proposed rule changes Friday.


Short article, no more at link: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/12/trump-is-ending-safety-regulations-enacted-after-catastrophic-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill.html



Smoke rises from a controlled burn May 19, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. Coast Guard/Getty Images

[democratisphere]

1. All of the good and great things Obama did are being destroyed.

redumbliCONs own this insanity!

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I know! And it makes absolutely no sense at all!

As long as this country has existed, we've enacted increasing safety regulations that didn't exist before - to save lives and prevent injuries. To roll them back - which Trump and his minions seem to be doing on every level - is contrary to everything we've stood for. What's next - a return to child labor??

[democratisphere]

3. If child labor will increase the wealth of the soon to be trillionaires,

we can expect it to be so!

[Vinca]

4. What the hell is wrong with the guy? I don't get it.

The world is being left to his kids, too.

[duforsure]

5. The environment means nothing to him

Nothing means anything but how much he can funnel into his pockets. The costs of what he's doing will be tragic on us all. Just another reason for him and the GOP to be voted out of office, and the House and Senate in 2018 to be taken back.

[Ilsa]

6. The movie Deep Water Horizon should be required viewing for anyone

Working on regs affecting offshore drilling. Yeah, I know, it was a movie. But the continuous scene showing the operator taking report near the beginning is telling, as is the pressure testing. It's the only movie with Mark Wahlberg that has kept me engaged. 11 people died from the fire and explosion, and hiundreds of thousands of lives were ruined by the oil spill.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. Stupid ignorant fuck. nt

[Irish_Dem]

8. He has a list of everything Obama did in office. And is working his way down the list

repealing, canceling and negating everything on the list.