Ban On Deepwater Drilling Lifted

October 15th, 2010

The ban is lifted, but it’s not business as usual for deepwater oil drillers...

President Obama halted deepwater drilling after a BP oil rig exploded and started dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico this summer. Now the ban is being lifted, but the oil industry will be forced to comply with new, stricter regulations before they’ll be issued permits to drill.
According to the oil industry, the main problem isn’t increased oversight or costs related to the new regulations – that they expected. Instead, they’re concerned that without knowing the new rules in advance, they won’t be able to plan for the profitable reopening of their drilling operations.
Environmentalists are worried that the ban is being lifted too soon, without proper study of what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The new rules are okay, they say, but not nearly thorough enough.

“The truth is, there will always be risks associated with deep-water drilling.” – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar