IPAA: Obama’s offshore rule reduces safety, hurts offshore energy production
The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) on Wednesday came out strongly against the Obama Administration’s proposed offshore well control rule.
“Offshore producers share the government’s goal of enhancing offshore safety and companies continue to work every day to make operations as safe as possible,” Dan Naatz, senior vice president of government relations and political affairs at IPAA, said. “However, after years of the U.S. oil and natural gas industry sharing technical information and areas of concerns in the form of formal comments, letters, and meetings with the Obama Administration, we are disappointed in the final outcome that federal regulators took on this offshore rule. This long-anticipated rule, half a decade in the making, was the federal government’s chance to get it right – to implement new offshore operating standards that would balance workable safety measures with the continued development of America’s rich energy resources.”
Naatz said that the rule change could result in unintended negative consequences leading to reduced safety, less environmental protection, fewer American jobs, and decreased U.S oil and natural gas production.
IPAA is a national upstream trade organization representing thousands of independent oil and natural gas producers and services companies across the country. These companies account for 54 percent of America’s oil production and 85 percent of its natural gas production.
