Federal offshore regulators sent a proposed rule designed to prevent catastrophes such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico to the White House for review.
The proposal would create new requirements for “blowout preventers,” a last-resort device used to plug leaking offshore wells, along with other measures to control spills. The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs will study the proposal from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
A review of the 2010 BP incident, in which 11 workers died and more than 4 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf, found that a blowout preventer did not properly deploy to seal off the Macondo well. It resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
The proposed rule has been in the works for years, and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs will conduct a cost-benefit analysis. The process also is expected to set off another round of lobbying between the oil industry and environmental groups.
