Twenty members of Florida’s congressional delegation sent a letter Tuesday to the Trump Administration opposing any rollback of safety regulations adopted after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

 

The letter was released by delegation co-chairmen U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, and Alcee Hastings.

 

In a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the Florida representatives warned that “an oil spill can devastate a regional economy and inflict long-term environmental damage” and asked the secretary to “reject any proposals to roll back regulations that were specifically adopted to address systemic safety failures that led to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.”

 

A division of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, recently said some of the regulations adopted in response to the tragedy created “potentially unduly burdensome requirements” on oil and gas operators, Buchanan’s office said in a news release. The proposal to roll back safety rules was published in the Federal Register at the end of 2017.

Read More: