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Page added on September 29, 2018
U.S. Interior Dept. relaxes rules on offshore oil, gas production
The Trump administration on Thursday eased safety rules on offshore oil and gas production put in place after the deadly 2010 BP Plc Deepwater Horizon disaster, as part of its effort to slash regulations and boost the energy industry.
The Interior Department revised the 2016 oil and gas production safety systems rule, part of a series of regulations the Obama administration enacted on offshore drilling and production after the drilling well disaster that killed 11 oil rig workers, led to the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history and cost BP about $65 billion.
The final rule will appear in the federal register as soon as Friday, according to a document seen by Reuters.
It eliminates or changes some safety standards for when a well is producing oil or gas, such as requiring that independent third parties certify devices. Other changes involve when operators have to notify the government about beginning oil and gas production and what they have to report about equipment failures.
The Interior Department said in the rule that “certain provisions in that (2016) rulemaking created potentially unduly burdensome requirements for oil and natural gas production operators on the Outer Continental Shelf, without meaningfully increasing safety of the workers or protection of the environment.”
The rule supports the administration’s “objective of facilitating energy dominance” it said.
The move was praised by industry but decried by environmentalists.
“We have a rule that is not a safety rollback, but instead incorporates modern technological advances,” Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said on Thursday.
Athan Manuel, director of lands protection at the Sierra Club, said the revisions were an “example of this administration’s shameless attempts to please corporate polluters, no matter the cost to workers’ safety, our health, or the environment.”
(This story has been refilled to correct name of rule and clarify that the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred on a drilling rig, in paragraph 2)
4 Comments on "U.S. Interior Dept. relaxes rules on offshore oil, gas production"
BobInget on Sat, 29th Sep 2018 11:22 am
Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100
ttps://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-sees-a-7-degree-rise-in-global-temperatures-by-2100/2018/09/27/b9c6fada-bb45-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f7f7055a14a9
Firefighters from Brea, Calif., inspect and cut fireline on Aug. 1, 2018, as the Ranch Fire burns near Upper Lake, Calif. A day earlier, it and the River Fire totaled more than 74,000 acres. (Stuart W. Palley/For The Washington Post)
By Juliet Eilperin ,
Brady Dennis and
Chris Mooney
September 28 at 3:55 PM
Last month, deep in a 500-page environmental impact statement, the Trump administration made a startling assumption: On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous seven degrees by the end of this century.
A rise of seven degrees Fahrenheit, or about four degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels would be catastrophic, according to scientists. Many coral reefs would dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Parts of Manhattan and Miami would be underwater without costly coastal defenses. Extreme heat waves would routinely smother large parts of the globe.
But the administration did not offer this dire forecast, premised on the idea that the world will fail to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, as part of an argument to combat climate change. Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed.
The draft statement, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), was written to justify President Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020. While the proposal would increase greenhouse gas emissions, the impact statement says, that policy would add just a very small drop to a very big, hot bucket.
“The amazing thing they’re saying is human activities are going to lead to this rise of carbon dioxide that is disastrous for the environment and society. And then they’re saying they’re not going to do anything about it,” said Michael MacCracken, who served as a senior scientist at the U.S. Global Change Research Program from 1993 to 2002.
The document projects that global temperature will rise by nearly 3.5 degrees Celsius above the average temperature between 1986 and 2005 regardless of whether Obama-era tailpipe standards take effect or are frozen for six years, as the Trump administration has proposed. The global average temperature rose more than 0.5 degrees Celsius between 1880, the start of industrialization, and 1986, so the analysis assumes a roughly four degree Celsius or seven degree Fahrenheit increase from preindustrial levels.
The world would have to make deep cuts in carbon emissions to avoid this drastic warming, the analysis states. And that “would require substantial increases in technology innovation and adoption compared to today’s levels and would require the economy and the vehicle fleet to move away from the use of fossil fuels, which is not currently technologically feasible or economically feasible.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
World leaders have pledged to keep the world from warming more than two degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels, and agreed to try to keep the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But the current greenhouse gas cuts pledged under the 2015 Paris climate agreement are not steep enough to meet either goal. Scientists predict a four degree Celsius rise by the century’s end if countries take no meaningful actions to curb their carbon output.
Davy on Sat, 29th Sep 2018 12:01 pm
Oh bob, blaming trump for climate change again. People like you that fly to Nicaragua to overwinter and live and eat lavishly think Trump is the primary reason for climate change as if it started in 2016. The Paris accord is a full blown hoax allowing the emerging nations to build out a huge amount of coal fired electricity. The developed west is supposed to make cuts and has not. This is all “FAKE GREEN” “HOLLOW LIBERAL” noise. Trump is a reason for this problem now because of policy and procedure but so are you fake green hollow liberal hypocrites who say “do as I say not as I do”.
boney joe on Sat, 29th Sep 2018 8:59 pm
Shut-up, Neutral-Fair-Balanced Davyturd. Stop putting words into Bob’s mouth, you Republican partisan hack. Bob quoted an article from the Washington Post, which you obviously failed to read since it’s critical of your Dear Leader Dump.
Admit you are a right-wing Republican hack instead of attempting to give yourself credibility by falsely claiming to be neutral and balanced.
Your most consistent and reliable character traits are hypocrisy and lies.
boney joe on Sat, 29th Sep 2018 9:03 pm
Worst of all, Davyturd would rather flush the environment down the toilet than be critical of his cult leader or Republicon party.
This is what’s so truly disgusting about who you are as a human being.