Feds OK Tougher Offshore Drilling Regs
The Washington Post reports:
The federal government is adopting a drilling safety rule and a workplace safety rule, imposing stricter requirements on offshore drilling operators, the Interior Department announced Thursday.
Energy industry officials said that they would review the regulations but that federal officials can now lift the ban on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico without fearing the consequences.
"In light of these new regulations, we strongly encourage the Obama administration to lift its economically devastating moratorium and move forward with responsible deep-water exploration in the Gulf of Mexico," said Bruce Vincent, chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Environmentalists countered that even strict rules wouldn't make offshore drilling acceptable in all areas of the United States.
"The next critical step in making our oceans and beaches safer from drilling is to declare all new areas off limits for drilling," said Michael Gravitz, oceans advocate for Environment America. "The safest drilling of new places like the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, eastern Gulf of Mexico or the Arctic is no drilling at all."
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