Interior chief orders review of drilling operations

While officials at the Interior and Homeland Security departments undertake a joint investigation into the April 20 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, attention is shifting to the role of Interior's regulators in the anticipated ecological disaster.

Officials at the department's Minerals Management Service, which oversees energy exploration and drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, in 2009 waived the requirement for the in-depth environmental impact analysis stipulated in the National Environmental Policy Act on BP's lease in what is known as Mississippi Canyon 252. Hundreds of such waivers are issued for operations in the Gulf of Mexico. In this case, neither the regulator nor BP believed there was any serious danger of the type of calamitous blowout that occurred.

David Smith, a spokesman for the Minerals Management Service, said such waivers for NEPA reviews are common in the Gulf, where no major accident has occurred in more than three decades. MMS does conduct environmental reviews in the Gulf and environmental impact statements for specific leases, which are separate from the frequently waived NEPA analyses, he said.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that BP's initial exploration plan in February 2009 determined an oil spill was unlikely and minimized any environmental damage that might result from a spill in its 13-page environmental impact analysis.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has ordered a review of the department's management and administration of the offshore drilling program. In an April 30 executive order, he established a high-level Outer Continental Shelf Safety Oversight Board to assess oversight and make recommendations regarding the "current and future responsibility for management and administration of the OCS program."

The board, which has 30 days to report its findings and recommendations, is chaired by Wilma Lewis, assistant secretary for land and minerals management. Other members include Rhea Suh, assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, and acting Inspector General Mary Kendall.

The board's duties include "making recommendations to the secretary and the deputy secretary to improve and strengthen the department's overall management, regulation and oversight of OCS operations, including, but not limited to, undertaking further audits or reviews, and reviewing existing authorities and procedures," the order stated.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has started investigating the incident and recovery operations. Its first hearing is scheduled for May 12.

The Project on Government Oversight called for investigators to scrutinize MMS' role in the disaster, citing numerous past investigations by the Government Accountability Office and Interior inspector general that have shown serious lapses in the agency's oversight of oil and gas leases, particularly in collecting royalties owed taxpayers.

"Taxpayers shouldn't let Interior off the hook for this," POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said. "Everyone knows that MMS' coziness with industry resulted in the loss of billions of taxpayer dollars, but now we are seeing the even bigger impact of their lax regulation."