Trump Just Put A Stop To Offshore Drilling Safety Study

"Two months after proposing to open a massive area of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas companies for offshore drilling, the Trump administration has halted a study that aimed to make drilling platforms safer.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine announced Thursday that the Interior Department suspended a $580,000 study to update and enhance the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s oil and gas inspection program. “The stop work order, dated Dec. 7, says that within 90 days [it] will either be lifted and work on the study can resume, or the contract to perform the study will be terminated.”

A bureau spokesman, Gregory Julian, said the study was suspended because it might not be needed. “Simply put, we paused the study because it appeared to be duplicative of ongoing work,” he said Thursday afternoon."

Darryl Fears reports for the Washington Post December 21, 2017.