President Biden is moving to reinstate the post-Macondo offshore safety rules enacted by the Obama administration, which were partly undone by the Trump administration.

Macondo

BP plc’s deepwater Macondo well explosion in 2010 killed 11 men, destroyed the Deep Horizon drilling rig and led to the largest oil spill in U.S. history. An extensive investigation by BP and federal officials found that Macondo’s blowout preventer (BOP) had failed, and that there were safety lapses. 

The Obama administration subsequently finalized more stringent offshore rules in 2016. The Trump administration subsequently revised the final rules, leaving 274 of 342 original provisions unchanged. In the latest do-over, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has...