Oil Spill Panel Report Urges Lifting EPA Barriers To Response Research

摘要

A draft staff report from President Obama's oil spill commission finds that several EPA policies may create barriers to research and development (R&D) of oil spill response and cleanup technologies, and recommends regulatory changes including easing the permitting process for open-water oil spill tests and less stringent oily water discharge limits. The report released Nov. 22, "Response/Clean-Up Technology Research & Development and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill," finds that government and industry have invested too little in spill response research in recent years, noting that the primary technologies used to clean up this summer's leaking BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico generally were the same as those used to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.