Overnight Energy: Obama issues sweeping offshore drilling rule

NEW OFFSHORE STANDARDS MADE FINAL: The Obama administration rolled out a package of new offshore drilling rules Thursday meant to prevent catastrophes like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill.

The rule, dubbed the Well Control Rule, sets new design and operational standards for equipment that drillers use when they lose control of a well, focusing on the blowout preventer.

{mosads}It’s the most significant new offshore safety regulation since Deepwater Horizon, which killed 11 workers and led to an 87-day oil spill.

“The final Well Control Rule seeks to better protect human lives from offshore oil spills by comprehensively addressing the full range of systems and processes involved in well control operations,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told reporters Thursday.

“Through this rule, we’re requiring more stringent design requirements and stricter operating procedures for critical equipment used in offshore energy development.”

The Independent Petroleum Association of America blasted the rule and said it is overly prescriptive, while the American Petroleum Institute, which had some problems with last year’s proposal, withheld judgment while it reviews the standards.

Environmentalists and Democrats welcomed it and said it should have gone even farther.

“I still don’t believe that offshore drilling is safe enough, and I feel like every time a company starts a new well we’re playing Russian roulette with our oceans, but I congratulate the Obama Administration and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement for taking this crucial step that appropriately prioritizes workers and the environment ahead of corporate profits,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.

Read more here.

PALIN VS. BILL NYE ON SCIENCE: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) questioned Bill Nye’s scientific credentials Thursday, saying he’s not qualified to judge climate skeptics.

“Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am,” Palin said at a Capitol Hill event held to roll out a film that aims to discredit climate scientists. “He’s a kids’ show actor, he’s not a scientist.”

Palin dismissed climate change as just changes in the weather, and accused climate “alarmists” of trying to control the weather.

Palin, who backs Donald Trump for president, said the 2016 candidates need to talk more about climate change controversies.

“It’s something that our candidates should be talking about, and giving us their view on and hopefully acknowledging that it needs to become, in the science community, less political,” she said. “Otherwise, it leads us to believe that so many things coming from perhaps the scientists could be bogus. If this is bogus, you know, what else are they trying to tell us and trying to control us around if they can’t get this one right?”

Read more here.

ENERGY APPROPRIATIONS BILL HEADED TO THE SENATE FLOOR: The Senate’s energy appropriations bill is on its way to the floor for a vote next week.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) moved toward bringing the legislation up Thursday by filing cloture on a House bill the Senate will use as its vehicle to pass it.

The move came shortly before the Senate Appropriations Committee formally passed the $37.5 billion bill without any amendments and with all but one member voting for it.

Read more here and here.

EPA NEARS FINISH LINE FOR MERCURY RULE REVISION: The Obama administration is one step closer to putting out its fix for its major power plant pollution rule that the Supreme Court said was illegal.

The White House Office of Management and Budget approved the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) measure to fix the rule Thursday, a day before the deadline the EPA gave itself.

The problem with the mercury and air toxics rule, the Supreme Court said was that the EPA should have considered costs and benefits before it even started writing the rule, not just in the process of writing it.

So the EPA has proposed to simply apply its existing cost-benefit analysis — which shows benefits outweighing costs by nearly 10 to 1 — to the earlier part of the rulemaking process.

Keep an eye out for the fix Friday.

AROUND THE WEB:

To commemorate Earth Day, Apple is launching a campaign called “Apps for Earth,” in which certain app developers have agreed to let a portion of proceeds from their apps go to the World Wildlife Fund, Mashable reports.

Energy XXI, an oil and gas producer with operations in Texas, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, filed for bankruptcy Thursday, Reuters reports.

Mexico is injecting $4.2 billion into state oil company Pemex to help it get through the oil glut, the Associated Press reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Thursday’s stories…

– Palin: Bill Nye ‘as much a scientist as I am’

– Lawmakers push emergency planning for power grid attack

– Obama rolls out new sweeping offshore drilling rule

– Senate committee approves energy, veterans spending bills

– Dem calls on House leaders to take up Flint aid bill

– McConnell sets up energy spending bill

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