A decade ago an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare. Today, safety rules adopted in the spill’s aftermath have been eased and companies are drilling into deeper waters.
, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said “profit-driven decisions” on the rig were made in “conscious disregard of known risks.”
Trump administration changes have intensified debate over how tightly the government should regulate, and what decisions should be left to industry professionals. “While on the facility we did numerous inspections of different items,” Day said, including equipment for preventing blowouts, fires, spills, or other major accidents. He said electronic records allow more work to be done from shore, rather than digging through paperwork on site.
Industry representatives maintain that inspection numbers don’t automatically translate to less effective oversight. Inspectors are less interested than in the past in technical violations and are focused on making sure comprehensive safety systems are in place to prevent major accidents, said Erik Milito, of industry trade group the National Ocean Industries Association.
Angelle said initial staff recommendations to keep the two-week testing frequency for blowout preventers “were not ready and ripe.” His office later released an Argonne National Laboratory study that concluded relaxing the testing regimen would have cost benefits and could improve safety, since frequent equipment testing can cause wear and tear that results in accidents.
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