Today, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a new proposal to weaken environmental safeguards for offshore drilling in the Arctic. The plan would remove nearly half the provisions currently in place to protect Arctic waters and ecosystems from a devastating oil spill, including requirements that protect against well blowouts.
Washington, DC -- Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bills banning offshore drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Florida’s Gulf Coast.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Ten environmental groups sued the Trump administration today to challenge rollbacks of the 2016 Well Control and Blowout Preventer Rule, a safety regulation meant to prevent another blowout like what happened during the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Today, David Bernhardt’s Department of the Interior released its final plan to roll back safety standards for offshore drilling. The blowout preventer rule was put in place by the Obama administration in response to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 people and spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Washington, DC -- The Wall Street Journal reported today that the release of the Trump administration’s proposed offshore drilling plan has been delayed.
Last night, the United States District Court for the District of Alaska ruled that Donald Trump acted unlawfully in his attempt to undo permanent protections for the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans from offshore drilling. The ruling restores protections to 98% of the Arctic Ocean and millions of acres in the Atlantic. It will also force the administration to reconsider its radical proposed offshore drilling program, which would have expanded drilling into nearly every corner of America’s public waters, including these protected areas.
Charleston, S.C. – Leading environmental groups sued the federal government today to prevent seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean. This extremely loud and dangerous process, which is used to search for oil and gas deposits deep below the ocean’s surface, is the first step toward offshore drilling. If allowed, seismic airgun blasting would harm marine life, including whales, dolphins, fish and zooplankton – the foundation of the ocean food web.
Today the Trump administration will authorize companies to injure, harass, disrupt or even kill marine mammals in the course of surveying the Atlantic Ocean seafloor to detect oil and gas reserves.
Ryan Zinke’s Department of the Interior announced the conditional approval of Hilcorp Alaska LLC’s “Liberty” offshore drilling plan in the Beaufort Sea. This facility would be the first oil and gas production facility in federal waters off Alaska.