The Deepwater Horizon oil spill devastated the environment and economy in the Gulf Coast area and beyond. People whose lives were affected by the spill are moving forward, many of them with help from settlement claims they filed after the disaster struck. Everyone hopes that a catastrophe of that magnitude will never happen again. Unfortunately, it seems as though the risk of another Gulf Coast oil spill disaster looms larger than many people realize.
An environmental advocacy group recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that the government is allowing offshore oil drillers to avoid following rules that require extensive safety testing of their equipment. The rules were put in place during the Obama administration, with the Well Control Rule, which was enacted in 2016.
The Deepwater Horizon explosion was traced back to a faulty blowout preventer, a safety device that is intended to stop unintended releases of oil or natural gas. The blowout preventer had not been inspected since 2005, and it was damaged, but not replaced, following a near-blowout incident before the 2010 disaster. The Well Control Rule aims to avoid another disaster like Deepwater Horizon, and it contains requirements for the testing, design, and maintenance of blowout preventers.
However, the Well Control Rule can only protect the Gulf if its provisions are enforced. The lawsuit filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of Healthy Gulf against the United States Department of the Interior claims that the director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement amended the provisions of the Well Control Rule unlawfully and in secret. The amended rule allows offshore drilling companies to request waivers that enable them to be exempt from some of the provisions of the Well Control Rule.
To date, over one thousand five hundred waivers have been granted. Approximately a third of those waivers allowed companies to forego testing of their blowout preventers before putting them into use. That adds up to many rigs that are not in compliance with the safety testing rules that are intended to prevent another disaster like Deepwater Horizon. The process for granting waivers has not been made available to the public. Because of that, companies with less than stellar safety records may be expanding their operations without thoroughly testing their equipment. It is also possible that waivers are being given to companies that would not have resources to pay for the damages they would owe if they were to cause a release of oil or a massive oil spill.
The Gulf region is slowly recovering from the disastrous effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The health of the economy and the environment in the Gulf region is precarious. Another oil spill in the area could undo all of the healing and repair that has taken place. To learn more about past and present BP oil spill litigation, call the Mississippi BP Oil Spill Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577, to arrange an initial consultation.
