Biden administration reinstates Obama-era offshore drilling safety rules

The Biden administration has finalized the restoration of Obama-era offshore oil drilling rules, passed in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, that the Trump administration rolled back.

The final rule restores the bulk of the 2016 protections, including a required analysis and investigation of any failures within three months of an incident as well as real-time drilling monitoring. 

It also strengthens safety requirements for blowout preventers, the system of seals and valves used to prevent pressurized oil and gas from bursting out of wells. A 2014 report by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board determined that the failure of a blowout preventer was a major factor in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The Trump administration, which issued nearly 2,000 waivers to the industry through the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, rolled back the Obama-era rule’s requirement for independent inspectors in April 2020.

“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to the highest standards of worker safety and environmental protections,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “These improvements are necessary to ensure offshore operations, especially those related to well integrity and blowout prevention, are based on the best available, sound science. As our nation transitions to a clean energy economy, we will continue strengthening and modernizing offshore energy standards and oversight.”   

The rule was vocally opposed by the oil and gas industry and its leading trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, which in a statement called the rule “yet another example of the Biden administration working to restrict American energy, which could lead to higher energy costs and weaken U.S. security.”

President Biden issued a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on public lands shortly after taking office in 2021, eventually lifting the hold after a series of court setbacks. Since then, his administration auctioned off 1.6 million acres of Gulf waters for drilling, much to the chagrin of conservationists, citing requirements in the Inflation Reduction Act inserted by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). 

Jacqueline Savitz, chief policy officer for ocean conservation group Oceana, said in a statement on Tuesday that the new rules are “a big step in getting us back on track.”

“But offshore drilling simply will never be safe. When there is a spill like Deepwater Horizon, it’s too late, our options are severely limited, so prevention is the only solution and this is a good step in that direction. That said, 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,” Savitz said.

The Deepwater spill, believed to be the largest maritime spill in the history of the oil industry, lasted more than four months and poured more than 200 million gallons into the Gulf. Eleven people were killed in the original explosion. 

—Updated at 3 p.m.