Trump to roll back offshore drilling safety regulations: report

The Trump administration is reportedly moving to roll back a series of safety regulations related to offshore drilling.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) earlier this month submitted a proposal to the White House budget office seeking to revise safety measures, estimating that it would save more than $900 million over the next decade, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The proposal would largely affect safety regulations that were put in place by the Obama administration after the 2010 Deep Horizon disaster, the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Industry officials argue the safety rules are too broad, and the Trump administration appears to agree.

The BSEE has pitched rolling back a requirement that government regulators review real-time production data from oil companies, as well as a requirement that they approve critical drilling equipment from third-party vendors, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The agency said such regulations “would increase procedural burdens and costs without giving rise to meaningful improvements to safety or environmental protection.”

{mosads}Despite pressure from industry groups, the BSEE will not propose changes to a “well control rule,” a pressure standard drillers must maintain to prevent a well blowout. However, the proposal notes that the word “safe” would be stricken from that particular rule in an effort to stop regulators from exceeding their “authority in interpreting the term in a way to withhold certain drilling permits,” the newspaper reports.

President Trump has committed to rolling back regulations across industries, including oil and gas drilling. A provision in the recently-signed GOP tax plan allows for offshore drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Trump’s Interior Department has also stopped funding for a study aimed at improving offshore drilling safety regulations.