/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60155161/GettyImages_98736482.0.jpg "Deepwater Horizon led to new protections for US waters. Trump just repealed them.")
The Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers. Gas erupted into a massive fireball, and then the rig gushed 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It soon became the largest and most expensive marine oil spill in history, with an estimated $17.2 billion in damages to properties, fisheries, and tourism across the Gulf Coast.
In response, President Barack Obama signed an executive order creating a commission to study the spill. The commission recommended new safety rules, accountability standards, and environmental regulations for drilling in US waters. Obama then signed another executive order to promote environmental stewardship of the ocean, coasts, and the Great Lakes in light of the oil spill. According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the new rules were “the most aggressive and comprehensive reforms to offshore oil and gas regulation and oversight in U.S. history.”
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump revoked Obama’s stewardship directive, replacing it with a new executive order giving more responsibility to states for offshore oil and gas drilling, as well as prioritizing business interests ahead of the environment. Trump said the measure is “rolling back excessive bureaucracy created by the previous administration.” (There was no mention of the Deepwater Horizon spill in his announcement or in the executive order.)
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, said the order “puts our country’s ocean policy back on the right track.”
A former member of the Coast Guard who served during Deepwater Horizon was appalled:
I was activated and deployed to the gulf for Deepwater Horizon. We killed ourselves out there, up to our armpits in toxic chemicals, to make sure this was fixed and never happened again.
All undone in an instant, for no other reason than the whim of a rich, entitled monster. https://t.co/jGUgK5eDfF
— Myke Cole (@MykeCole) June 21, 2018
House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) told the Associated Press the order was “unilaterally throwing out” years of environmental preservation efforts.
Perhaps most importantly, the order unravels coastal protection rules put in place to avoid future disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill. The provisions limited where and how energy companies could drill, and the industry has been chafing at the regulations.
The new executive order is the oil industry’s wish come true
The Deepwater Horizon disaster showed that there were systemic failures in the offshore oil industry that came to a head on that day eight years ago. Oil major BP, which was leasing the rig, was pushing operators to work faster and had racked up hundreds of safety violations at the time of the explosion. The operator, Transocean, also made mistakes in reporting alerts and in interpreting critical data, highlighting poor training. And government regulators quickly approved last-minute changes to the well’s design shortly before it exploded.
The disaster also illustrated how ill-prepared coastal communities were for such a spill, and how vulnerable their economies were to such a traumatic event.
The Obama administration added new requirements and rules to reduce the risk of these factors aligning again. They strengthened the drilling permit review process, added stricter safety requirements, and forced companies to conduct better environmental reviews.
But in April 2017, Trump issued an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to “reconsider” rules implemented after the Deepwater Horizon spill. This week’s executive order is the culmination of that effort.
Industry groups were elated at the prospect of undoing the changes. Environmental groups were aghast.
After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Obama administration created new protections to prevent another massive oil spill. The Trump administration just made a move to repeal that rule — putting coastal communities health and livelihoods at risk. https://t.co/weYgtq1b64
— LCV (@LCVoters) June 22, 2018
It’s unlikely that the new executive order will lead to more drilling right away, given that the United States already has abundant onshore oil and drilling in the water can be up to 20 times more expensive. But oil prices are rising, and lower safety requirements and weaker environmental protections would lower operating costs for coastal rigs. Activists are worried looser regulations would lead to more drilling and less safe operations, increasing the likelihood of another disaster.
The Interior Department is also presiding over the largest rollback of federal land protections in US history, opening up public lands to fossil fuel extraction and mineral mining. Plus, Secretary Zinke opened up nearly all coastal waters to drilling last year and started the process for the largest offshore lease sale ever.
joe on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 8:33 am
Rolling back everything Obama ever did, so it was just like it was before that bad man ever roasted trump at that dinner…..
Build the wall, Build the wall, Build the wall!!!
Davy on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 8:48 am
These laws don’t have much teeth anyway. What really has teeth is the uncertainty of an accident legally and financially. This is the real corporate motivator. What oil company can risk another such incident? Obama administration allowed DWH in the first place by lax policy so praising Obama actions is typical partisan agenda. I don’t agree with the science denying trump admin but let’s keep thing in perspective above the political agenda and reality of oil spills.
Shortend on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 9:06 am
Cheeto is the Fossil Fuel Meathead…while Obamie was their hidden black ace.
Cheetos main claim to fame is undoing every act the first half black elected President enacted.
Dave Thompson on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 9:44 am
Corporate policy always externalizes costs. The externalities are put on the shoulders of the general public in all corporate dealings, it is how multinational corporations make the fabulous wealth for the shareholder. Be it Obama or Trump or whomever is in power, the bidding of the corporate interests always comes first.
drwater on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 9:53 am
“BP’s Deepwater Horizon costs total $62B” The big boys are not going to be stupid again. It would be lightly capitalized newcomers that would be the risk.
Hawkcreek on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 12:46 pm
The Horizon disaster happened because BP ignored safety regs already in place.
How could more regs help prevent another disaster if they were ignored too?
I designed safety systems for the oil industry for years, and they ALWAYS PICK THE LOW COST “SOLUTION”, and then usually sidestep that to get more production.
Outcast_Searcher on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 1:01 pm
Hawk, it depends on the company. Working from memory, when I looked into it after the blowout, BP had about 730 safety citations. And many of those were very serious. OTOH, Chevron had TWO and they were very minor, the equivalent of documentation nits.
You can’t just paint the entire industry with one broad brush re safety.
And what Trump undid, the next POTUS can easily redo, if the Dems can find a credible candidate to run against him (i.e. NOT HRC or Sanders). Oh, and they need to get out the vote. If they’re going to complain every day about Trump, then they better get out the vote against him, if they want to be taken seriously next time around.
Anonymouse1 on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 2:12 pm
lol, the muppet obama and his ‘government’ stood idly by and let oil-Qaeda do whatever they felt like during the GoM incident. Including spreading massive amounts of the highly toxic, and ineffective, corexit wherever they felt like. The regime also needed little prompting from the oil cartel when it came to suppressing independent research and reporting of the spill and its effects.
Yep, ‘obama’ was a true friend(tm) of the environment and oceans. Unlike, the evil, wicked trumpf. Do you get it now? Obama, good man, trumpf, baaaad man. Maybe you should bring ‘obama’ back from his golfing, speaking engagements, signing million dollar deals with Netflix. You know, so he can save the oceans from the wicked, ocean-hating idiot, president hairpiece.
Dredd on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 2:27 pm
Deep water is on the horizon.
Warn somebody you love (Let’s Not Be Too Dense – 3).
Plantagenet on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 10:04 pm
Not only did the Obama administration approve dumping tons of poisons into the Gulf of Mexico, they bypassed the normal safety procedures to let Shell drill the Deepwater Horizon well in the first place. Normally an environmental Impact Study is required to evaluate the danger and plan how to drill in a new area, but Obama cancelled the EIS and told Shell to go ahead and immediately drill the deepest well ever in the GOM—no EIS and no planning needed. And then the well blew out……WOW.
Anonymouse1 on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 10:09 pm
You have any evidence someone called ‘obama’ cancelled this EIS retard? Should be trivial to find, since it would be a matter of public record right? Just find the document that waived the EIS and, clearly we will see this ‘obamas’s signature on the relevant documentation.
Hop to it, plantietard.
GregT on Sun, 24th Jun 2018 10:16 pm
Geez Planter, move on girl.
joe on Mon, 25th Jun 2018 12:27 am
Democracy died last night in Turkey. Islamic Brotherhood party followers the AK party in Turkey just advanced the furthest down the right wing than any nato member. What it really means is that Saudi (and thus America) just lost an ally.
“https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/24/erdogan-claims-victory-in-turkish-presidential-election”
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 25th Jun 2018 1:44 am
YEEEE HAWWWW !!!!! And thats EXACTLY
why Trump is President ! Look at that burning
deep water Horizon rig ! That’s gotta be like
at least 150 sofa’s on fire, all at once!
And Trump is also gonna make backyard garbage
fires legal again.
Sure beats all them sissy liberals crying
that Trump took away their children!
Want some real news? Dont listen to
Fox News, bunch of crybaby liberals.
Try out InfoWars, or Townhall, or
try BizPacReview
All those liberal news sources that Google
or Bing dishes up 4 U, bunch of crybaby
liberal crap. Get some conservative news.
C’mon just do it! Dont let your wife see
you reading it, she’s probably a liberal.
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 25th Jun 2018 1:49 am
Hi Joe, sorry to hear that Turkey got taken
over by ISIS.
Couldn’t we blow them up? Usually if USA
drop enough bombs all at once, it solves
the problem.
Cloggie on Mon, 25th Jun 2018 3:58 am
“Democracy died last night in Turkey. Islamic Brotherhood party followers the AK party in Turkey just advanced the furthest down the right wing than any nato member. What it really means is that Saudi (and thus America) just lost an ally.”
Poor joe, now Turkey can no longer be used by Britain to blow up the EU from within by smuggling this ticking timebomb in the EU as its largest member.
But indeed, the empire lost Turkey as an ally. Neo-Ottoman aspirations are next. If Turkey and Iran reach an understanding, European and American colonialism will be over for good. And KSA will be toast as the last western bridgehead in the ME. Once KSA will have fallen and divided by Turkey and Iran, Palestine is next.
Welcome to a truly multipolar world.
deadly on Mon, 25th Jun 2018 4:47 am
You gotta drill for oil, come what may.
Everybody makes mistakes. Every four years, Americans make the mistake of going to the polls and electing another mistake. Happens all of the time.
Today is an important date in history.
It is June 25th. On this date in 1876, General George Armstrong Custer rode to glory and into a trap.
Crazy Horse spotted him out there on the way to Little Big Horn and followed him to his certain death.
When the time was right, every flank closed in and dealt a death dealing blow to George and his unlucky cavalry.
When it was all over, Crazy Horse made sure Custer was filled with arrows so old George look like a porcupine.
Well, you can make stuff up about it, sounds better.
Nine days later, July 4th, the mood was somber in Warshington. The centennial year for the Republic was not a happy occasion.
The news was not fake, it was real news.
It was in the New York Times, even.
There had been forty-eight hours’ fighting, with no word from Custer. Twenty-four hours more of fighting and the suspense ended, when the Indians abandoned their village in great haste and confusion. Reno knew then that succor was near at hand. Gen. Terry, with Gibbon commanding his own infantry, had arrived, and as the comrades met men wept on each other’s necks. Inquiries were then made for Custer, but none could tell where he was. Soon an officer came rushing into camp and related that he had found Custer, dead, stripped naked, but not mutilated, and near him his two brothers, Col. Tom and Boston Custer.
That’s the way it goes moving west.
joe on Mon, 25th Jun 2018 1:51 pm
Actually cloggtard wrong again as usual. Its been Merkel who was his greatest European enemy and the UK and Russia his greatest supporters. He knows damn well who was behind the attempted coup and it wasn’t Gulen, think more like Obama and you might be thinking correctly.