House Democrats are demanding an explanation from the Trump administration for the hundreds of times the Interior Department has allowed energy companies to deviate from a key offshore drilling safety rule.

Natural Resources Committee leaders cited POLITICO's report that Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement granted nearly 1,700 waivers over 20 months to provisions of the Well Control Rule, a set of safety standards the Obama administration devised after the 2010 explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico.


The report adds concerns that drilling would risk coastal businesses like fishing or tourism, Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), chairman of the subcommittee on energy and mineral resources, wrote in a letter Tuesday to BSEE Director Scott Angelle.

"Given that the administration is proposing a vast expansion of offshore drilling ... it is particularly disturbing to see any waiving of offshore safety and environmental standards, let alone on such a broad scale," the Democrats wrote.

They asked for BSEE to supply unredacted requests for waivers to its regulations during the 30 months preceding the Well Control Rule’s going into effect, as well as for requests for waivers after the rule went into effect.

Democrats on the committee had previously spoken out against Interior’s proposed loosening of some of the Obama-era rules, “but yesterday’s story indicates that BSEE is not waiting to complete the formal rulemaking process before effectively negating parts of the [rule],“ the letter continues.


An Interior spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions.

The committee asks BSEE to submit documents by March or work with the committee to devise a schedule to produce it.