...or will it be REAL change, and start actually enforcing regulations and inspecting oil drilling? At least hopefully the screwing and snorting drugs w..."/>
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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
BOEMRE...will it stink as much as MMS does?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:18 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:A former federal prosecutor took over Monday as director of a new government agency that oversees offshore drilling and other oil and gas development. Michael R. Bromwich, 56, a former assistant U.S. attorney and Justice Department inspector general, will lead a reorganization of the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service. Share Bromwich's arrival as head of the 1,700-employee agency came as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed an order renaming the agency the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The agency, which both regulates the oil and gas industry and collects billions in royalties from it, will be known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy or BOE for short, Salazar said. The drilling agency has come under repeated fire for inadequate review of oil giant BP's plans for deep-water drilling at the well now spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Salazar said Bromwich has a strong track record of reforming the way organizations work, both in the public and private sectors. Bromwich was inspector general at the Justice Department from 1994-1999 and served from 2002-2008 as the independent monitor for the District of Columbia's police department, ensuring compliance with civil rights and other laws. He also conducted special investigations into allegations of incompetence and misconduct at the FBI Laboratory and investigated the FBI's conduct in the Aldrich Ames spy case. In a related development, Salazar and Bromwich met Monday with a group of scientists who have complained that their views were improperly used to justify a federal moratorium on deep-water drilling. The scientists, who had consulted with Salazar on a May 27 report on drilling safety, said the Interior Department falsely implied that they had agreed to a "blanket moratorium" that they actually opposed. The scientists said the drilling moratorium went too far and warned that it may have a lasting impact on the nation's economy. A spokeswoman for Salazar said the May 27 report was not intended to imply that all experts from the National Academy of Engineering had agreed to the moratorium. "By listing the members of the NAE that peer-reviewed the 22 safety recommendations contained in the report, we didn't mean to imply that they also agreed with the moratorium on deep-water drilling," said spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff. "We acknowledge that they were not asked to review or comment on the proposed moratorium and that they peer-reviewed the report on a technical basis."
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