Editorial: Don’t risk Florida coast by changing offshore drilling rules
The latest comes via a bipartisan tirade over plans by Interior officials to ease regulations and oversight of the 2016 Well Control Rule put in place by the Obama administration in the wake of the
This is not "common-sense." Not when the Florida
Though these proposed changes were unveiled in January, the
"These rules were put in place to prevent another massive oil spill off our coasts,"
And this is not a partisan issue in
"Have we learned nothing from the worst environmental disaster in American history?" said
Buchanan noted that among the proposed changes, independent inspectors who test blowout preventers would no longer need to be certified by the government and real-time monitoring of offshore oil rigs would be loosened for operations on the outer continental shelf. That's roughly 10 miles off
The oil and gas industry would have us believe that the proposed revisions to a "technically flawed" rule "will move us forward on safety, help the government better regulate risks and better protect workers and the environment," according to the
But the well control rule in place already does that. So gutting it is not only reckless, but smacks of kowtowing to the oil and gas industry.
Further, this isn't the only recent example of the Trump administration having a confusing policy when it comes to drilling off
Zinke, after announcing a broad Trump administration proposal to expand offshore drilling, flew to the
For his part, Scott emphasized that
But in the days, weeks and months since, Zinke has made confusing public statements that has only fueled questions about whether
At a March hearing before the
A couple of days later, Zinke told the
Scott, last week, maintained that "
The governor is going to have to do better than that if he wants to declare this as some sort of political victory in his battle with Nelson for the
He needs to make clear to his friend in the
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