Feds Excluded Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig From Environmental Report Requirements

Congressman Vern Buchanan (FL-13) called today for the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform to investigate why British Petroleum received a waiver from conducting a detailed environmental impact report at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. According to a report in today’s Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Interior gave BP a lease to operate the rig with a “categorical exclusion” from the National Environment Policy Act last year. In the attached letter Committee leaders, Buchanan asks that they look into the matter immediately.