BSEE increases maximum civil penalty

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has announced an increase in the maximum civil penalty for violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. In an interim final rule that will become effective on July 18, the maximum penalty will increase from $40,000 to $42,017 per day for each violation, BSEE says.

“BSEE uses civil penalties as an enforcement tool to deter unsafe practices that are not in compliance with regulations,” said BSEE Director Brian Salerno. “We review penalty rates annually to make sure they keep pace with inflation. This ensures they remain a mechanism that emphasizes to industry the importance of safe and environmentally responsible operations.”

BSEE says that it imposes civil penalties when an operator on the outer continental shelf “fails to correct a violation that has been recorded or commits a violation that constitutes a threat of serious, irreparable or immediate harm or damage to life, property, any mineral deposit, or the marine, coastal or human environment.”

Under a federal statute the agency must periodically adjust the maximum permissible penalty in line with the consumer price index. BSEE’s last inflation adjustment took place in 2011. The agency determining that no adjustment was warranted in 2014 and 2015.

- ALAN BAILEY