Interior tightens drilling oversight

Interior Department officials on Monday said they would restrict the use of categorical exclusions for offshore oil and gas development to activities involving limited environmental risk while they conduct a comprehensive review of the department's compliance with the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act.

BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which exploded April 20, killing 11 crew members and spewing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, was operating under such an exclusion prior to the disaster. The government routinely has issued categorical exclusions for drilling activities when there are previously existing environmental impact statements for similar areas, thus exempting companies from having to conduct time-consuming environmental assessments that can greatly delay the permitting process.

In an Aug. 16 memo to senior officials at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, formerly known as the Minerals Management Service, BOEM Director Michael Bromwich said the department would narrow its use of such exclusions. Specifically, activities involving the use of blowout preventers will be required to undergo environmental assessments.

The new policy will remain in effect as the department conducts a comprehensive review of how it implements NEPA requirements.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, "In light of the increasing levels of complexity and risk and the consequent potential environmental impacts associated with deepwater drilling, we are taking a fresh look at the NEPA process and the types of environmental reviews that should be required for offshore activity."

The announcement followed Monday's release of a report by the White House Council on Environmental Quality on the former Minerals Management Service's NEPA program. The report recommended, among other things, that the department review its use of categorical exclusions and eliminate the 30-day time frame for making decisions on companies' exploration plans.

Energy industry officials worry the new restrictions on categorical exclusions will delay projects and hurt jobs in a region already suffering high unemployment. Erik Milito, an executive at the American Petroleum Institute, the main lobbying organization for large oil companies, said the change in policy could stretch out the process for approving projects with no clear benefits for environmental protection.

"We're in favor of targeted changes to regulations that enhance safety and environmental protection, provided the changes allow for the efficient moving forward of energy development and job creation," Milito said.

For many environmentalists, however, the new restrictions don't go far enough. "Deepwater wells and rigs already approved under the now admittedly faulty environmental review process will not necessarily have to seek full National Environmental Policy Act or Endangered Species Act compliance," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Interior should require that full environmental impact statements be prepared for drilling operations like the one that precipitated the BP explosion, he said.

"The policy that allowed the categorical exclusions used by BP at the Macondo well has not yet been officially revoked, and Director Bromwich's implementing memo on categorical exclusions is still very narrow," Suckling said.

The Obama administration expects to publish a notice in the Federal Register later this week of its intent to complete a supplemental environmental impact statement for the Gulf of Mexico.