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Obama to Split Up Offshore Drilling Agency in Response to Gulf Spill
The proposal is an acknowledgement of the new pressure on regulators as a result of the massive ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Interior Department on Tuesday morning said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will hold an early afternoon press conference to “announce reforms to toughen inspections and oversight of offshore oil and gas operations.” The department did not provide further details, but an administration official confirmed the plan to divide the Minerals Management Service.
MMS currently oversees the safety of offshore drilling and production operations, and also collects billions of dollars in leasing bids and oil-and-gas royalties for federal coffers — roles that critics say create inherent conflicts. (AP Photo/Press-Register, John David Mercer)
MMS currently oversees the safety of offshore drilling and production operations, and also collects billions of dollars in leasing bids and oil-and-gas royalties for federal coffers — roles that critics say create inherent conflicts.
The Associated Press reports that under the proposal, “One agency would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil companies and enforcing safety regulations, while the other would oversee leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in royalties.”
The proposal comes after years of damning reports about the agency, which watchdog groups and Interior’s own inspector general have called too close to the industry and ill-equipped to ensure royalties are paid in full.
A 2008 report by Interior’s then-inspector general, Earl Devaney, found a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” at the agency’s Denver office. The report said that MMS officials did drugs and had sex with energy company representatives.
The report was about the royalty-in-kind program, in which companies provided oil and natural gas directly to Interior in lieu of cash royalties. Salazar announced the termination of the program last year.
Salazar has also vowed to implement other reforms at MMS, and the spill stemming from the April 20 explosion of an offshore rig leased by oil giant BP has heightened calls for changes.
BP officials will testify Tuesday before a Senate panel on their efforts to stop the three-week-old oil spill in the Gulf. BP so far has been unable to shut off the spill, and thousands of barrels of oil continue to leak into the sea each day.
David Nagel, executive vice president of BP America, on Monday described several efforts his company is taking to stop the leak, including the drilling of two relief wells to intersect the drill hole so that mud and concrete could be poured down to clog the leak, a process that could take 90 days.
He also said the company was seeking permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to pour chemical dispersants directly onto the leak on the sea floor to contain the spill.
Executives are expected to receive a tough line of questioning from senators on Tuesday.
18 Comments so far
Show AllGreat. So you go from one agency overseeing the collection of bribes and kickbacks to cater to oil interests, to two or more competing agencies who will be insular and protective of their 'turf' and go out of their way to ensure that necessary communication is even more compromised and fragmented. Which will make any future oil spills/catastrophes just that much worse, because the the rival agencies will not be keeping each other in the loop, in much the same way the FBI and CIA were at each other's throats before, during, and after 9/11. Brilliant.
Only a lifelong bureaucrat could come up with such an asshat plan.
Now that fragmented regulation was identified as one of the causes of the 2008 financial meltdown, other industries are clamoring to get their agents in the White House and Congress to fragment regulation in their respective industries so they can make a bundle the way the banksters are.
raydelcamino--great point.
Well, it's lifelong bureaucrats who know that if you distribute authority among enough entities, suddenly nobody is responsible any more!
"The Associated Press reports that under the proposal, 'One agency would be charged with inspecting oil rigs, investigating oil companies and enforcing safety regulations, while the other would oversee leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in royalties.'"
Well, if "one agency would be charged with inspecting oil rigs" etc. and the other overseeing "leases for drilling and collection of billions of dollars in royalties," which one would be responsible for collecting the bribes and getting the booze, drugs and whores?"
Can you say SHELL GAME ?
Shuffle, shuffle.
Joe
Ah, don't you just love the FOX news effect in "journalism" today" In fact, I'm going to coin a phrase, you heard it here. I'm going to call the he said/she said, all about framing, balanced bullcrap journalism – neojournalism. I can't even get beyond a few paragraphs before I discover one of these neojournalistic turds.
The Hill writes "…roles that critics say create inherent conflicts."
Rather than point to the facts known about the shenanigans that happened in the MMS such as gifts for sex, etc which has been reported on by good old fashioned fact gathering, this author pulls out the prime obfuscation framing device where those who would point out the evidence (in this case known corruption at the MMS) are characterized as mere "critics"
The article eventually points out the facts known about the corruption, but only after the seemingly requisite framing of the "critic".
The drill baby drill folks must have their foot in their mouths for this one...
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BP rules and BP ruins--twas ever thus.
Obviously, BP and the US government failed to understand and appreciate the risk of deep sea oil wells. The result is an environmental catastrophe of Biblical proportions. This reminds me of the Titanic, but the loss is much greater than we seem to be able to appreciate. We are still arrogantly thinking of keeping our foot on BP's neck rather than trying to work together for a solution.
I too doubt that more government agencies are in order. If Anwar and expanded coastal drilling had been allowed, the deep sea nightmare drilling would not have been necessary. For all of you who think it's okay in someone elses neighborhood, be advised that the chickens are now coming to your backyard. I suspect there will be a windmills there as well. As much as the Democrats love to grow government and micromanage our lives, this crisis is for real, and it will require all of our cooperation to recover in your lifetime. Further regulation and oversight cannot extract us from the reality of our situation. It is not a time for finger pointing. It is a time for divine inspiration and a need for great wisdom. This is more than a mess.
BP needs to made to pay, and pay dearly. I can see no benefit from taking the heat off BP.
Oil wells have emergency shutoff valves called blowout preventers, which are designed to prevent such disasters. These often fail, and to stop the failures, an "acoustic control backup" is REQUIRED by some oil producing nations, eg, Norway and Brazil. These cost $0.5 million. When the USA considered similar legislation, the oil corporations lobbied against it, and the corporate controlled politicians imposed no such requirements, i.e. they were BOUGHT.
The cause of the blowout is BP's decision not to pay for safety equipment that is mandatory in other parts of the world. Had the proper legislation been in place, the proper safety equipment would have been in place.
A major reason for BP's failure to install appropriate safety equipment is that oil companies have not been made to pay proper compensation for the damage that they have done. Take the Exxon disaster, for example. The first jury required Exxon to pay $5 billion in damages. Appeals by the oil giant got that reduced to only $0.5 billion, which is the amount of profit Exxon makes in 4 days.
As oil corporations are corporations, safety equipment decisions are made by comparing the cost of the equipment to be installed against the probability of disaster multiplied by the COST TO THEMSELVES should the disaster happen. Therefore the COST TO BP must be made huge.
Oil companies MUST be made to pay properly for such disasters. Only if they are made to pay properly, will it be in their interests to pay for the proper safety equipment.
"The Obama administration will propose that the troubled Interior Department branch that oversees offshore oil-and-gas drilling be split up into two separate agencies, according to an administration official."
And this is supposed to be a solution?
How stupid does he/they think we are?
(I am sorely disappointed in Obama, BTW. Sorely so. I was "for" him - versus McCain/Palin - and still think they would be EVEN worse, but ... SIGH!)
"Sigh" very appropriate. This solution is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The brainlesness that comes from having to deny truth and act accordingly would be high comedy if it wasn't destroying us all.
By the way, they no longer care if we've got their number, altho I did read that a Dem rep from the East (PA?) lost a primary to someone who went after him for voting for the health care bill. Hope or entertainment is coming.
"Executives are expected to receive a tough line of questioning from senators on Tuesday."
Excuse me while I vomit.
It is possible to live in an alternative world of sanity.
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