(C) Common Dreams
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Biden Revived Rules Designed to Prevent Another Deepwater Horizon Disaster [1]
['Lisa Friedman', 'More About Lisa Friedman']
Date: 2023-08-22
Jackie Savitz, the chief policy officer for Oceana, an ocean conservation nonprofit group, called the rule “a big step in getting us back on track” but argued offshore oil and gas will never be free of risk.
“There is no way we can do enough to prevent an oil spill, it is an inherently risky business and it’s not a matter of if, but when we will have another one. So a big part of prevention has to be to stop selling new leases,” Ms. Savitz said
Republicans and the oil and gas industry are widely expected to challenge the rule, which includes the real-time monitoring of drilling operations and the certification of emergency devices by third parties. The industry has argued that the Biden administration’s safety measures are “arbitrary” and will create economic hardships for oil and gas companies.
The rules come as the Biden administration navigates a complicated landscape of oil and gas regulation. As a candidate, President Biden pledged to stop new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters. But legal requirements have compelled him to move ahead with leasing, including plans to drill in 73 million acres of water in the Gulf of Mexico and the approval of the controversial $8 billion Willow oil drilling project in Alaska. At the same time, the administration has approved three major offshore wind projects, moved to bolster wind and solar development on public lands and increased the royalty rates paid by companies that drill on public lands.
On Tuesday the Interior Department also announced it has approved the fourth commercial scale offshore wind farm since the start of the Biden administration. Known as the Revolution Wind project, it would be located off the coast of Rhode Island with a projected capacity of just over 700 megawatts, enough to power nearly 250,000 homes, the Interior Department said. It follows previously-announced projects off the coasts of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey as well as another approved project off Rhode Island.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/22/climate/biden-rules-deepwater-horizon.html
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