BP's New Gulf Drilling Sued Over Safety Concerns

0:00It's April 20th. I'm Cory with the story, and this is Tampa Bay News today, your AI-powered local news. Environmental groups hit the Trump administration with a lawsuit this week over approving BP's new ultra-deep water drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico. They filed it on the 16th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, that massive BP spill off Louisiana that dumped 134. Billion gallons of oil into the ocean, killed 11 workers, and wrecked coastlines and wildlife for billions in damage. The Cascita project got the green light back in March, marking BP's first new Gulf oil field since that 2010 catastrophe. It's a $5 billion operation that could pump 80,000 barrels of crude a day from depths over 5,000 feet down. The suing groups, including Healthy Gulf and the Center for Biological Diversity, argue the approval skipped key safety data and ignored risks too. People's health, local ecosystems, fishing jobs, and tourism.

1:02They say BP has improved and it can handle drilling that deep without another blowout. Meanwhile, the administration's pushing hard on fossil fuels with moves like merging ocean energy agencies to speed up permits and exempting Gulf. Drilling from Endangered Species Act rules for national security reasons. This comes amid high energy prices from global tensions, and BP insists the suit has no merit, claiming full confidence in safe operations. All this flips the script on past limits, unlocking hundreds of millions of barrels while prioritizing jobs and lower costs. But critics warn it's, rolling the dice on another Gulf nightmare as a legal fight plays out.