La. group files suit: O&G rollback regs

The Louisiana-based conservation group Healthy Gulf filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California federal court challenging the Trump administration’s rollback of offshore oil-and-gas drilling regulations that relaxed requirements on blowout preventers and real-time monitoring. Healthy Gulf and nine other environmental groups filed the suit June 11 against Scott Angelle - a former Louisiana lieutenant governor, and current director of the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). The lead plaintiff in the suit is the Sierra Club, based in Oakland, Calif. BSEE was formed weeks after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster to oversee safety and environmental protection in offshore energy development. The lawsuit alleges the government is weakening measures deemed necessary after the disaster to reduce the risk of workers' deaths and oil spills. The changes ease new regulations on some of the practices that led to the spill. The bureau did not provide adequate reasons for relaxing its rules, Cyn Sarthou, executive director of Healthy Gulf, told NOLA.com. In 2017, the president issued an executive order directing BSEE to reexamine the so-called Well Control Rule, which was imposed in the wake of the 2010 spill to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence. The order directed the bureau to find ways to encourage energy exploration and production on the Outer Continental Shelf that extends more than 200 miles offshore. The order called for reducing unnecessary regulations while ensuring energy exploration would stay safe and environmentally responsible. The rule changes went into effect this month. BSEE estimates the changes will save the industry $152M in compliance costs annually, over a decade, according to the final rule published in the Federal Register. (Source: NOLA.com 07/28/19)