Oil Regulator Ceded Oversight to Drillers

Source: Wall Street Journal

The small U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling doesn't write or implement most safety regulations, having gradually shifted such responsibilities to the oil industry itself for more than a decade.

Instead, the Minerals Management Service—now caught up in the crisis of the Deepwater Horizon rig that for weeks has sent crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico—sets broad performance goals for the industry. Oil producers and drilling companies are then free to decide for themselves how to meet those goals, industry executives and former regulators say.
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Defenders of the agency say enforcement isn't its primary responsibility. Stephen Allred, who as Assistant Secretary of the Interior oversaw MMS from 2006 to 2009, said the agency does conduct spot inspections of oil rigs, and checks operators' compliance with safety procedures. However, "Their role is not to baby-sit" the operators, he said. The agency's primary task during inspections is to verify how much oil is being pumped, which is key to another MMS duty, maximizing payments the government receives for oil and gas rights from energy producers.
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Some former employees say that MMS, which was founded in 1982 and is part of the Interior Department, has a built-in conflict of interest: It is supposed to be a watchdog that halts drilling when it spots unsafe behavior. But it is also supposed to promote energy independence and to generate government revenue from drilling on government lands, including the outer continental shelf.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704370704575228512237747070.html

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Seems like a lot of changes are needed.

from the govt. regulators v. the oil industry..

"Conflict of interest" doesn't really say it. "Criminal police force" does come to mind.

Whine about evil regulators? Have the regulatory agency become nothing more than an industry puppet.

Who could have predicted this?

You'd think two failed wars with an economic and financial crisis would have been enough.

high density

I fear that the two wars, a economical crisis who would roll for a long time, to every bit of the corrupt and filth is up in the air, is just the start... George Walker Bush jr have NEVER doing a good days work all his life, and he have always had ruin in his wake, where he have lived. Yes he have got the money, for himself, but for everyone else, it have been ruin and destitute in the end...

And the 8 year as your PRESIDENT, he have managed to RUIN United States of America, as he have been doing all days as it is... It will take long time, maybe many decades to fix what is wrong with the United states.. And it would also mean that the government of the united states have to decide, for many decades how they want to do things... And I fear that if nothing is being doing, the whole thing can implode - and the recession of the 1930s would just be a breeze compared to this....

I hope to be wrong, that the current administration, and more administrations after Obama can turn this ship around, and undo the massive damage that the last 30 year of ideology from the right can be stooped, and the damage fixed... But I also fear that US is to far gone, and it is just turning over the cliff any day now...

I hope, and pray for the best, but I fear the opposite, and even if US was to survive this, it will mean a whole different role for the US the next couple of decades... The homering from the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is bleeding the US dry as we speak.. Best have to turn home, and save what can be saved.. And let the iraqis, and the Afghanistan's clean up their house alone.. They doesn't seen to be to keen of having americans or NATO forces in their lands as it is anymore...

Diclotican

Snark will soon erupt followed by a massive round of paper and bar chart generation.