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Salazar announces OCS oversight reform Intends to split MMS environmental and safety enforcement from leasing and permitting; more resources for inspectors, other actions Alan Bailey Petroleum News
On May 11 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced major actions in response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The tragedy aboard the Deepwater Horizon and the massive spill for which BP is responsible has made the importance and urgency of our reform agenda even clearer,” Salazar said. “We have been — and will continue to be — aggressive in our response to BP’s spill, but we must also aggressively expand the activities, resources, and independence of federal inspectors so they can ensure that offshore oil and gas operations are following the law, protecting their workers and guarding against the type of disaster that happened on the Deepwater Horizon.”
Interior will restructure the U.S. Minerals Management Service by establishing “a separate and independent safety and environmental enforcement entity” within the agency, Interior said. MMS, the agency with jurisdiction over outer continental shelf oil and gas development, manages OCS lease sales, collects OCS oil and gas revenues and issues permits for offshore activities as well as performing a role in enforcing laws and government regulations.
“The job of ensuring energy companies are following the law and protecting the safety of their workers and the environment is a big one, and should be independent from other missions of the agency,” Salazar said. “We will responsibly and thoughtfully move to establish independence and separation for this critical mission, so that the American people know they have a strong and independent organization holding energy companies accountable and in compliance with the law of the land.”
$29 million In addition, the Obama administration is going to make a request to Congress for an additional $29 million in funding for a variety of activities. The funding would include $20 million for more inspections of offshore oil platforms, engineering studies and the enforcement of offshore safety regulations; $7 million for comprehensive evaluations of policies, procedures and actions in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico incident; and $2 million for agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct environmental studies.
The administration is requesting the National Academy of Engineering, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences, to conduct an independent investigation into the cause of the Deepwater Horizon incident. That investigation will complement and not replace a joint investigation that the U.S. Coast Guard and MMS are conducting, Interior said.
And oil spill legislation that the administration is submitting to Congress will now include a proposal to eliminate the current 30-day deadline for MMS to act on oil and gas exploration plans submitted for approval. Instead, MMS would have to operate within a 90-day timeline, with the possibility of extending that timeline if necessary to accommodate additional environmental analysis, Interior said. The additional environmental analysis would supplement environmental impact statements developed for outer continental shelf lease sale programs or for individual lease sales.
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