Rep. Grijalva Issues Statement on Well Control Rule Modification

WASHINGTON, April 27 -- Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Arizona, ranking Democratic member of the House Natural Resources Committee, issued the following statement on the announcement that the Trump administration will seek to modify the well control rule, which regulates offshore oil and gas drilling:

The move comes shortly after the eighth anniversary of the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon disaster that destroyed much of the Gulf economy and remains the country's most harmful offshore environmental disaster.

"Republicans have decided the federal government's job is doing expensive favors for oil and gas companies.

"This administration's obsession with more drilling and fewer regulations, whatever the cost, is the same attitude that produced Deepwater Horizon in the first place.

"The industry needs stronger oversight, especially as we drill new wells off our coastlines. This administration offers the exact opposite."