Attorney General Becerra Condemns President Trump’s Rollback of Rule Preventing Offshore Oil Spills

SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s final rule to weaken safety standards that prevent uncontrolled oil spills. The standard at issue, the Well Control regulation, prevents catastrophic oil spills by requiring a safety valve to automatically seal an oil well in the event of a blowout. The regulation was enacted under the Obama Administration as a result of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon tragedy. The tragedy resulted in the loss of eleven lives, an 87-day unrestrained oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, lasting injury to the region’s economy, enormously expensive cleanup costs, and irreparable impacts to marine life and the marine environment.

“The memory of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy is still fresh in our minds, but the Trump Administration seems to have forgotten its human and financial costs,” said Attorney General Becerra. “These well control protections were enacted for a reason, because we have already seen the catastrophic impacts of offshore drilling left unchecked. There is no excuse to put oil industry profits over the safety of American lives and our environment. President Trump, who seems averse to the lessons of history, may doom America to repeat it.

A copy of the rule is available here.