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Trump Admin Slated to Roll Back Offshore Oil Drilling Safety Regulations

HeadlineDec 29, 2017

The Trump administration is slated to roll back safety regulations for offshore drilling that were implemented after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 people and caused the most devastating oil spill in U.S. history. The Interior Department, led by Secretary Ryan Zinke, is considering a proposal that would scrap the Obama-era regulations for “blowout preventers,” which are intended to prevent explosions in undersea oil and gas wells. The Department claims the deregulation would save the oil industry more than $200 million over a decade. Environmental groups widely oppose the rollback of the rules. The Center for Biological Diversity said, “Reversing offshore safety rules isn’t just deregulation, it’s willful ignorance.”

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