The U.S. government should continue rigorous inspection of offshore oil and gas development, more than a dozen Democratic senators said. The Department of Interior was called on to continue a study of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s inspection program for offshore development. A group of 19 U.S. senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, pointed to lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 as why continued rig inspections are necessary. “The administration’s Jan. 4 announcement that it would open up additional areas of our coasts to drilling makes it more important than ever that the federal government is using best practices to monitor the safety of these rigs,” their letter to Interior Secretary […]