(Gerald Herbert/AP)The Trump administration has weakened offshore drilling safeguards put in place after a 2010 explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil platform killed 11 workers and triggered the largest ocean spill in U.S. history. “Today’s final rule puts safety first, both public and environmental safety, in a common sense way,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in a statement. The Deepwater Horizon disaster poured 4 million barrels of oil — about 200 million gallons — into the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. They said the rules did not recognize technological improvements since the BP spill. Now oil companies can use “recommended practices” set by the oil industry for ensuring that safety equipment works, returning to a standard that existed before the gulf oil spill.

Source: Washington Post May 02, 2019 18:57 UTC