Carbajal Blasts Interior's Rollback of Drilling Rules Implemented After Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Statement

Today, Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24) released the following statement after the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced its decision to rollback 68 offshore oil drilling safety requirements imposed after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, including weakening standards for well blowout preventers and reducing real-time well monitoring requirements:

"Time and time again we've seen oil and gas corporations sacrifice safety at the expense of worker safety, local economies, and our environment, in order to cut costs," said Carbajal. "After eleven people were killed and 4.9 million barrels of oil flooded the Gulf Coast during the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, we took decisive action to ensure that this type of disaster would never happen again. Interior's decision to rollback 68 of those requirements is a dangerous giveaway to oil companies at the expense of the American people."

The final rule will come into effect 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

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