BSEE Bur Safety Envir Enforce
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important;"><strong><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://action.earthjustice.org/site/R?i=u6vaSDaEnRTdae3k2qOSbg"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">safety standards are at risk of being rolled back at the bidding of offshore oil drilling companies—and we need your help.</font></a></strong></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Well Control Rule, finalized in 2016, requires real-time oversight of risky drilling operations and precautionary failsafe measures to stop a spill when things go wrong. Last year the Trump administration began rewriting the rule, which the fossil fuel industry regards as a “burden.”</font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With the Trump administration’s ongoing push for more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and its proposal to open virtually every mile of coastline to new oil and gas rigs, now is not the time to tinker with offshore safety and environmental standards.</font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2018/interior-moves-to-erode-key-protection-standard-on-offshore-oil-and-gas-drilling">https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2018/interior-moves-to-erode-key-protection-standard-on-offshore-oil-and-gas-drilling</a>?ga=2.47805924.253773879.1532379284-1627324521.1532379284</font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a<span style="font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase;">PRIL 27, 2018</span></font></p><div class="panel-pane pane-custom pane-1 font-large no-top-padding last" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28.8px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="pane-partial-border" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><div class="pane-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington, D.C. — </font><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 28.8px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Only a week after the anniversary of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Department of the Interior today announced its intended rollback of protection standards enacted to prevent another <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Deepwater Horizon</i> tragedy. The well control rule, finalized under President Obama in 2016, requires real-time oversight of risky drilling operations and precautionary failsafe measures to stop a spill when things go wrong. Interior officials began re-writing the rule after President Trump issued an executive order last year calling for offshore drilling controls — regarded as a “burden” by the fossil fuel industry — to be rolled back.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 28.8px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On a stakeholder call today, officials from the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement </span>emphasized the number of provisions affected, not the substance of the protections they provide. While details will be clear once the proposal is issued, this rule change is clearly designed to take regulators out of the process rather than increase any oversight.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 28.8px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The following is a statement from <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Steve Mashuda, Managing Attorney for Oceans at Earthjustice</strong>:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 28.8px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“History has already taught us the lesson that when the oil industry drills, it spills. The administration’s attempt to erode commonsense safety and environmental protections designed to prevent another tragedy on the scale of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Deepwater Horizon</i> is deeply troubling. With Interior’s ongoing push for more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and its proposal to open virtually every mile of coastline to new oil and gas rigs, now is not the time to tinker with safety and environmental standards. Americans deserve better than this dangerous and unnecessary race to expose our coastal communities and treasured marine environments to the risk of devastating oil spills. Our energy future lies in clean renewable energy, not at the bottom of the ocean — and not at the bottom of the regulatory barrel.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; line-height: 28.8px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The draft rule will now be sent to the Federal Register to be published next week, and agency officials will accept public comment on the proposal for 60 days.</font></p></div></div><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 22px; margin-top: 0px !important; margin-right: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/deepwater-horizon-investigation-trump-2561729233.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/deepwater-horizon-investigation-trump-2561729233.html</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; word-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/deepwater-horizon-investigation-trump-2561729233.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Deepwater Horizon Anniversary: Trump Administration Ignores Advice on Preventing Explosions, Injuries, Blowouts</font></a></h1><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url expanded" data-elid="2561729233" data-authors="Center for Biological Diversity" data-headline="Deepwater Horizon Anniversary: Trump Administration Ignores Advice on Preventing Explosions, Injuries, Blowouts" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description"><div class="widgetbrief"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Trump</a> administration is ignoring advice from the bipartisan commission that investigated the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bp" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">BP</a> Deepwater Horizon disaster as officials move to repeal <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">offshore drilling</a> safety regulations adopted in its aftermath.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Friday is the eighth anniversary of the explosion that killed 11 oil workers and caused more than 210 million gallons of oil to flow uncontrolled into the Gulf of Mexico for more than three months, killing thousands of marine mammals and birds.</font></p></div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); transition: all 350ms; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"Deepwater Horizon was a deadly reminder that offshore drilling is dangerous. Refusing to learn from this disaster threatens workers, wildlife and coastal communities," said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director at the <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Center for Biological Diversity</a>. "Trump's plans to get rid of safety rules dishonor the dead and ramp up the risk of another catastrophe."...</font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump Administration, Which Wants More Offshore Drilling, Shuts Down Study Into Its Safety</font></h1></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="js-scroll-trigger" data-target="body" data-triggers="render-rebelbar" data-toggle-class="with-floating-shares" data-loaded="true" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></span></font><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2519347831" data-authors="Lorraine Chow" data-headline="Trump Administration, Which Wants More Offshore Drilling, Shuts Down Study Into Its Safety" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The <a href="http://ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trump</a> administration, which is trying to expand <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling" style="text-decoration-line: none;">offshore oil drilling</a>, has issued a stop-work order on an independent <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49890" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">study</a> aimed at making the process safer.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) ordered the <a href="http://www.nationalacademies.org/?ga=2.201966357.528586204.1513954205-1308174365.1513954205" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine</a> (NASEM) to halt its study on Dec. 7.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The National Academies are grateful to the committee members for their service and disappointed that their important study has been stopped," the organization <a href="http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12212017" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> Thursday.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The intention of the 2016 study was to review and update BSEE's offshore oil and gas operations inspection program to enhance safety. The program was established after the 2010 <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deepwater-horizon" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Deepwater Horizon</a> spill that killed 11 people and gushed an estimated 3.1 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/what-you-need-to-know-six-years-after-bps-gulf-oil-disaster-1891119128.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">largest man-made oil spill</a> in history.
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASEM said that within 90 days, the stop-work order will either be lifted and work on the study can resume, or the contract to perform the study will be terminated.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BSEE spokesman Greg Julian said the study "was paused ... to allow time to ensure that there are no duplicate efforts."</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But <a href="http://sierraclub.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Sierra Club</a>'s Kelly Martin said the move was in line with the Trump administration's push for a major expansion of offshore drilling.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I think this is an example of Trump demonstrating he wants to open up federal waters to more drilling at the expense of people on the planet," Martin told the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/trump-administration-halts-study-offshore-oil-inspections-51934941" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Associated Press</a>. "He is much more supportive of corporate polluters than protecting people's safety."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Center for Biological Diversity</a> similarly <a href="https://twitter.com/EndangeredOcean/status/943987569917751296" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">tweeted</a>: "Can dangerous offshore oil drilling be made safer? Trump and Co. don't even want to know. Hostile to science and public safety, they're pushing for more offshore drilling and shutting down study into its safety."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is the second NASEM study halted by the Interior Department in the last four months. In August, a study on the potential health effects for people living near surface coal mining sites in Central Appalachia was stopped pending a review of contracts by the department. The National Academies said it has not received any update on the status of that review and the study remains on hold.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Given how important this study is to the citizens and communities surrounding these surface mining sites in Appalachia, the National Academies believe the study should be completed and are exploring options to do so. Some private donors have expressed an interest in funding the completion of the study," NASEM said.</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-arctic-drilling-2474135610.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump Green Lights Arctic Drilling Project in Polar Bear Habitat ›</font></a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-08-17/governor-urges-trump-to-drop-virginia-from-offshore-drilling-plan" class="around-the-web__link" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Governor Urges Trump to Drop Virginia From Offshore Drilling Plan ... ›</font></a></li></ul></div></div></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p></div></div>