Offshore Drilling Regulations

December 2017

In December 2017, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) released revisions to the Production Safety Systems Rule to weaken offshore drilling safety regulations that had been put in place after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill.

January 2018

In January 2018, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh led a coalition of five attorneys general in submitting comments expressing strong opposition to any weakening of BSEE’s offshore drilling safety regulations. The comments warned against an unjustified reversal of needed safety updates, particularly as the Interior Department is simultaneously considering dramatically expanding the scope of offshore drilling.

September 2018

In September 2018, BSEE issued a final rule, which rolled back several offshore drilling safety provisions.

September 2022

On September 14, 2022, DOI published a proposed rule that would revise certain regulatory provisions in the rule challenged in this litigation.

November 2022

In November 2022, then Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh led a coalition of six AGs who submitted comments asking the Department of the Interior to strengthen protections against offshore oil and gas spills. The AGs emphasized the importance of moving away from relying on offshore oil and gas in order to avoid catastrophic spills, such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and, more generally, to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The AGs then provided specific recommendations for how BSEE should strengthen the rule, such as by requiring operators to report equipment failures directly to the agency and install certain equipment to increase safety and facilitate intervention if a spill does occur.

October 2023

On October 11, 2023, after two additional orders staying their case, the Sierra Club’s 2019 case challenging the Trump-era rule has now been dismissed without prejudice by Sierra Club.

The comment period for the current proposal ended November 14, 2022. There has been no further action regarding this proposal.

May 2018

In May 2018, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) at the Department of the Interior (DOI) issued a proposal to remove existing regulations for well control and blowout preventer systems for offshore oil and gas drilling. The roll back would affect critical components of the Blowout Preventer and Well Control Rule, which had been developed to prevent another catastrophic oil spill such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

August 2018

In August 2018, then Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh led a coalition of ten attorneys general in submitting comments in opposition to weakening the Blowout Preventer and Well Control Rule. The AGs argued that BSEE’s plan would weaken safety standards and increase the likelihood of another spill like the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010. Then California Attorney General Xavier Becerra submitted separate, but similar comments to BSEE. AG Becerra’s comments strongly aligned with the comments submitted by the other AGs, and raised specific concerns regarding BSEE’s rule-making methodology and failure to provide an environmental impact statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

May 2019

In May 2019, BSEE published its final version of the rule; revising provisions in the Blowout Preventer and Well Control Rule. The final rule amends 68 provisions in the 2016 Well Control Rule, mostly aligning federal regulations with the American Petroleum Institute’s industry standards for preventing blowouts. The final rule also eliminated a provision that required the Bureau to approve the qualifications and independence of contractors that oil and gas companies were hiring to conduct third party safety reviews.

June 2019

On June 11, 2019, the Sierra Club led eight NGOs in filing a lawsuit against the BSEE, the DOI, and both agencies’ directors in their official capacities, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. On November 26, 2019, the case was transferred from the Northern District of California to the Eastern District of Louisiana. Sierra Club, et al. v. Angelle, et al.

July 2022

On July 8, 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) at the Department of Interior, through a notice of availability, proposed its 2023-2028 federal offshore oil and gas leasing program.

October 2022

On October 6, 2022, then Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh led a coalition of 10 AGs in comments urging BOEM to reconsider its plans to lease areas of the outer continental shelf for new oil and gas drilling. The coalition explained that, although BOEM cut the number of lease sales from the 47 that were planned by the Trump administration to 11, the granting of any new oil and gas leases runs directly counter to the goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050. The letter argued that the agency should also minimize the environmental impact of any leases and not hold more sales than necessary.

March 2023

As required by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, BOEM held the Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 259 on Wednesday March 29, 2023. Following the sale, on April 27, 2023, BOEM issued bid evaluation results that detailed the lease sale report. BOEM will be holding the Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261 on Wednesday December 20, 2023.