Deepwater Horizon led to new protections for US waters. Trump just repealed them.

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Trump’s executive order voids an Obama policy that aimed to prevent oil spills.

https://www.vox.com/2018/6/22/17493414/trump-executive-order-deepwater-horizon-drilling-oceans







By Umair Irfan Updated Jun 23, 2018, 9:34am EDT



President Trump signed an executive order this week undoing an executive order signed by Barack Obama that imposed regulations on offshore drilling after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. US Coast Guard

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.”
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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......................

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A former member of the Coast Guard who served during Deepwater Horizon was appalled: