Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (82263)	7/20/2010 3:50:56 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Obama & Bush Faulted for Lax Offshore Oil Drill Regulation (Update1) By Jim Efstathiou Jr. July 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration continued a decade-long pattern of lax U.S. regulation of offshore oil and natural gas drilling that led to BP Plc’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico, lawmakers investigating the incident said. Regulators during George W. Bush’s presidency failed to protect safety and the environment, and actions by President Barack Obama’s Interior Department were “more cosmetic than substantive,” Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, said today at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. Decisions dating to the start of Bush’s administration played a role in the BP spill, the worst in U.S. history, Stupak said at the hearing examining the April 20 explosion on a drilling rig leased by BP. Congressional investigators said the Interior Department under Bush offered incentives for drillers without imposing safety standards. “There has been a pervasive failure by the regulators to take the actions necessary to protect safety and the environment,” Stupak said. “These failures to regulate happened at the time federal officials offered oil and gas companies new incentives to drill in deeper and riskier waters in the Gulf of Mexico.” While Obama’s Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, canceled a royalty-in-kind program faulted by a government watchdog, adopted ethics rules and sought more inspectors for offshore facilities, “there is little evidence that these reforms changed the laissez-faire approach” by the Minerals Management Service “in regulating the BP well,” said Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the committee. MMS Decisions “MMS approved the drill plan and changes to the well design that we have questioned during our investigation,” he said, referring to the BP spill. Decisions made in the days before the explosion by BP have been questioned by Stupak and congressional investigators. The London-based company took shortcuts to save money and was unprepared to deal with the spill, Stupak said. There are too few inspectors to effectively cover the number of deepwater wells, which rose to 600 last year from 65 in 1985, Stupak said. Regulators failed to implement stronger safety standards, at times after protests by industry. Bush’s former Interior secretaries, Dirk Kempthorne and Gale Norton, testified about decisions on offshore drilling during the Bush administration, and described broad support from lawmakers and the public for oil exploration. Cheney Task Force Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said a 2001 report from an energy task force created by Vice President Dick Cheney warned that regulations were delaying drilling projects. The report prompted the Bush administration to waive a requirement that companies plan for the type of blowout that occurred at the BP well, Markey said. “The conditions that created the BP disaster in the Gulf were put in motion many years ago,” Markey said. In implementing Bush’s goal to expedite production, Norton, Interior secretary from 2001 to March 2006, failed to resolve questions about the adequacy of blowout preventers to contain spills, investigators said in a memorandum to the committee. The blowout preventer at BP’s well failed to shut off the flow of oil after the rig exploded. “There was a deregulatory ticking time bomb that was set while you were secretary that has now exploded,” Markey said to Norton. “Was it wrong?” “It was reasonable to take into account what the history had been,” Norton said. “There were very few large spills.” Exploration Encouraged Waxman said he is concerned that the Cheney task-force report gave no consideration to “improving drilling safety while we encourage more exploration.” Norton said tougher rules on blowout preventers is “something that can be looked at in the future.” Norton joined Royal Dutch Shell Plc as a general counsel 10 months after leaving government. Kempthorne, Interior secretary when BP won the right to drill the Macondo well that ruptured in April, said plans to explore in the Outer Continental Shelf are developed in consultation with Congress and environmental groups. “We received comments from more than 100,000 interested citizens,” Kempthorne said. “Seventy-five percent of the comments received from the public supported some level of increased” drilling. BP said it plans to keep the Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico shut today after the U.S. concluded leaks at the site pose no threat. BP shut valves atop Macondo on July 15 for a pressure test to determine the integrity of the well, which had been leaking for almost three months after an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net Last Updated: July 20, 2010 14:04 EDT