“Drill Baby, Drill” Regulations Created By Trump

The Trump Administration has opened a large door to allow for new offshore drilling. The regulations and the committees that oversee this drilling will begin to operate as a single organization. The first was created after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident, which exploded on April 12, 2010. The explosion killed eleven people and set off a chain of events that made it the worst environmental catastrophe in US history. The spill eventually totaled 3.19 million barrels (134 million gallons), which ruined much of the Gulf coast line and killed thousands of birds and animals.

The new plan combines two agencies into a single agency. Yahoo News reports,  “The Interior Department said the overhaul would increase efficiency and speed up permitting for offshore oil and gas drilling.”

The organization, the Marine Minerals Administration, will bring together the functions of the current Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the new Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum commented that the arrangement would   “deliver clearer coordination, better service to the public and stronger, more integrated oversight of offshore energy development.”

Environmental groups quickly registered their disappointment. Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said of the new agency, “It sounds like yet another handout to the oil industry that will fast-track risky projects. It sure won’t make the people or wildlife on our coasts any safer,”

The decision is part of a series of decisions made by the Trump Administration after its executive order released on January 10 last year titled “Unleashing American Energy.” It opened large amounts of land and sea for drilling, including the Outer Continental Shelf. It also ended the $7,500 EV tax credit. The order said at the time that the restrictions on drilling had driven up Americans’ energy forecast. “These high energy costs devastate American consumers by driving up the cost of transportation, heating, utilities, farming, and manufacturing, while weakening our national security.”

The program has not worked well in oil drilling. Leases to open the waters off Alaska’s Cook Inlet received no bids. “At this time, no bids have been received,” the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said in a statement on its website.

There had also been hope, on the part of the Administration,  that the Iranian oil crisis would drive an announcement of new oil and gas exploration projects. This has not happened so far. Oil companies have decided to collect higher revenue from $100-plus oil rather than incur the expense of expensive exploration.

“Drill, baby drill may have been a good idea. However, the energy sector has not taken advantage