In response to the massive oil spill (over 19,000 square miles in area–or larger than the state of Maryland) in the Gulf of Mexico, on June 18, 2010, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued an order renaming the Minerals Management Service (MMS) the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE). MMS/BOEMRE manages the nation’s natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf. On June 15, President Barack Obama appointed Michael Bromwich to head the reorganized MMS and overhaul regulations governing offshore oil drilling.
The appointment of Bromwich–a former prosecutor–as Director of BOEMRE reflects the no-nonsense response of the Administration to the environmental disaster and growing public dissatisfaction. Bromwich was an Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to that, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Bromwich was an Associate Counsel for the Office of the Independent Counsel for Iran-Contra, and headed an Investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory. He has been appointed as an independent monitor to investigate the Metropolitan Police Department for the District of Columbia, and the crime lab for the Houston Police Department. Prior to his appointment as head of BOEMRE, Bromwich was a partner with Fried Frank in New York and Washington. Bromwich has developed a reputation for helping to turn around troubled federal agencies.
Director Bromwich has written a column today in Newsweek which confirms the Adminstration’s tough approach. In the column, Bromwich discusses his acceptance of the appointment by President Obama and Secretary Salazar. He emphasizes that his career has been defined by law enforcement, and that his experience in monitoring agencies will guide his reform of BOEMRE. Bromwich cites the alleged "coziness" of MMS with oil companies. On the subject of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak, he comments that the evidence suggests that British Petroleum (BP) and other companies "cut corners or made grave errors that led to the explosion."
Bromwich cites a need for "aggressive" investigators and states that BOEMRE has announced an "Investigations and Review Unit" (IRU), composed of prosecutors, investigators, scientists and other experts, to investigate allegations of misconduct by companies regulated by BOEMRE. The column states that companies that fail to cooperate may have their drilling permits suspended. "Serious wrongdoing" will be referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution.
Bromwich further states that BOEMRE and the IRU will investigate potential conflicts of interest, will conduct more thorough reviews of applications for drilling permits and more thorough environmental analyses, and will increase research of spill control. Bromwich concludes with the caveat that his efforts "while potentially aggressive, will not be hasty."
Bromwich’s statements are certainly not comforting to BP, TransOcean or the other companies with ties to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. However, only time will tell if Bromwich’s and BOEMRE’s efforts are successful in bringing about any reform to the offshore drilling industry, especially in the face of a risk of increased energy prices. On June 30, 2010, Secretary Salazar issued a press release announcing that the Department of the Interior is postponing public scope meetings on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the 2012–2017 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program until later this year. The release states that, while the Department is committed to "strong" reforms in the oil and gas industry, "[o]ffshore oil and gas production will remain an important component of our nation’s energy portfolio as we transition to a clean energy economy." With a "clean energy economy" being a distant dream at this point, it is uncertain how much increased regulation the Adminstration is willing to heap upon the industry.
Image from The Canadian