Long-standing U.S. rules around decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms were rewritten by the Biden administration in 2024, a move designed to ensure that owners of those assets bear the often significant cost of deactivating them. But the Trump administration paused their implementation in early 2025, promising to revise or overhaul them as part of a broader effort to reduce federal regulations and boost domestic energy production. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll examine the issue and the changes included in the administration’s proposed rule, which aims to reduce the regulatory burden without shifting decommissioning liabilities to taxpayers.
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As we noted in Back to Life, most U.S. offshore E&P business occurs in the U.S. Gulf, which generates about 14% of U.S. crude oil output. The federal government regulates most of that activity along the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Its oversight begins about 3.5 miles off the coast of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi; for Texas and Florida, its jurisdiction starts about 10 miles offshore (see black line hugging the coast in Figure 1 below). The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) are tasked with managing Gulf activity, from overseeing lease sales to expanding production areas to issuing rules on what E&Ps must do with wells, platforms and associated infrastructure once their projects have run their course. (Note: Yellow dots in Figure 1 indicate active leases.)
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About the song
“The Weight” was written by Robbie Robertson and appears as the fifth song on side one of The Band’s debut album, Music from Big Pink. The lyrics are a pastiche of Southern images regarding strange characters you might meet on the backroads of rural America. “Nazareth” comes from the brand inside of Robertson’s Martin D-28 that he was using while composing the song; it is the hometown of the Martin guitar manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania. “Fanny” refers to Robertson’s friend, Fanny Steloff, who founded the New York City Gotham Book Mart he was fond of visiting. “Anna Lee” is singer/drummer Levon Helm’s lifelong friend, Anna Lee Amsden from Turkey Scratch, AR. “Crazy Chester” was a bizarre character in Fayetteville, AR, who carried a holstered cap gun with him everywhere he went. Released as a single in August 1968, “The Weight” only went to #63 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart but became a staple of airplay on progressive FM radio in the U.S. in the late 1960s. The song appears in the film Easy Rider, but the version heard on the soundtrack album is by A Group Called Smith, due to licensing issues. Personnel on the record were: Levon Helm (lead, backing vocals, drums), Rick Danko (lead, backing vocals, bass), Robbie Robertson (acoustic guitar), Richard Manuel (Hammond organ), and Garth Hudson (piano).
Music from Big Pink was recorded in early 1968 at A&R Recorders (Studio A) in New York City and Gold Star Studios and Capitol in Hollywood. Produced by John Simon, the album was released in July 1968 and went to #30 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. Al Kooper said in Rolling Stone magazine, “This album was recorded in approximately two weeks. There are people who will work their lives away in vain and not touch it.” The album title refers to the pink house — aka Big Pink — that Band members Danko, Hudson and Manuel were living in at 2188 Stoll Road (later re-addressed as 56 Parnassus Lane) in West Saugerties, NY, while their first album was being written and recorded. The house is still there — and actually available for rent on VRBO. One single was released from the LP.
The Band was a Canadian-American rock band formed in Toronto in 1967 by Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm. They were formerly known as Ronnie Hawkins’s backing band, The Hawks. They toured with Bob Dylan as his first electric backing band in 1966. They released their debut album for Capitol Records in 1968. In 1976, the band filmed and recorded The Last Waltz at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, a documentary celebrating The Band before they officially broke up in 1978. The band, minus Robertson, began touring and occasionally recording again in 1983 until 1998. They have released 10 studio albums, nine live albums, 10 compilation albums, and 32 singles. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. All the band members had successful careers as solo artists. Richard Manuel died in March 1986, Rick Danko died in December 1999, Levon Helm died in April 2012 and Robbie Robertson died in August 2023.
"About the Song" -- written by Mickey McMahan , RBN Director of Musicology
