US tightens some offshore oil rig safety rules that had been loosened under Trump

The Biden administration has tightened offshore oil drilling safety regulations, including rules regarding the use of “blowout preventer” devices on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs. Planned changes announced last fall were finalized Tuesday — more than 13 years after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and spewed an estimated 130 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Tougher well control rules were adopted by the Obama administration in 2016. The Trump administration relaxed them in 2019.