Mr. Obama, shortly after taking office, had assigned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to clean up the agency, the Minerals Management Service. The office’s history of corruptionand coziness with the industry it was supposed to regulate had been the subject of years of scathing reports by government auditors, lurid headlinesand a score of Congressional hearings.
You expect an awful lot as of yesterday----You don't clean up years and years of corruption in an agency overnight- or in 16 months...
But it looks like Salazar is going to break up the agency into separate parts and take a run at cleaning it up- Investigations take time- and changing an entire Agency will not be easy....I don't envy him his task...
In September 2008, reports by the Inspector Generalof the Interior Department, Earl E. Devaney, were released that implicated over a dozenofficialsof the MMSof unethical and criminal conduct in the performanceof their duties.
The investigation found MMS employees had taken drugs and had sex with energy company representatives. MMS staff had also accepted gifts and free holidays amid "a cultureof ethical failure", according to the investigation.
The New York Times's summary states the investigation revealed "a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflictsof interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for muchof the Bush administration’s watch."
A May 2010 inspector general investigation revealed that MMS regulators in the Gulf region had allowed industryofficials to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency. MMS staff had routinely accepted meals, tickets to sporting events, and gifts from oil companies. Staffers also used government computers to view pornography.
In 2009 the regional supervisorof the Gulf region for MMS pled guilty and was sentenced to a year's probation in federal court for lying about receiving gifts from anoffshore drilling contractor. "This deeply disturbing report is further evidenceof the cozy relationship between MMS and the oil and gas industry," Salazar said
Revolving door with industry
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) alleges that MMS has suffered from a systemic revolving doorproblem between the Departmentof Interior and the oil and gas industries.
Thirteen months after departing as MMS director, Bush appointee Randall Luthibecame presidentof the National Oceans Industries Association(NOIA) whose mission is to "to secure reliable access and a favorable regulatory and economic environment for the companies that develop the nation's valuableoffshore energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner."
Luthi succeeded Tom Fry, who was MMS director under the Clinton administration. Luthi and Fry represented precisely the industries their agency was tasked with being a watchdog over. Lower level administrators influencing MMS have also gone on to work for the companies they once regulated:
Paul Stang served as Regional Supervisor for Leasing and Environment for MMS, then went to work for Shell Oil Company in 2007 on its Arctic Ocean programs.
Greg Smith served as the Deputy Program Managerof the Royalities in Kind (RIK) program between 2001 and 2004. Thereafter until 2007 he was directorof RIK.
]POGO's report states that when he was working on the RIK program, Smith received $30,000 from Geomatrix, an oil industry consulting firm. After leaving government, Smith went to work for Tenaska Marketing Ventures, described on their website as a "leading marketerof natural gas in North America".
Jimmy Mayberry served as Special Assistant to the Associate Directorof Minerals Revenue Management (MRM), managed by MMS, from 2000 to January 2003. After he left, he created an energy consulting company that was awarded an MMS contract via a rigged bid. He was convicted along with a former MMS coworker Milton Dial who also came to work at the company. Both were found guiltyof felony violationof conflictof interest law.
L. Poe Leggette served as Assistant Solicitor for DOI for over a decade, advising the MMS on their onshore andoffshore energy programs, as well as royalty valuation issues. He now heads the Western Lands and Energy Practice at Fulbright & Jaworski whose clients are the oil and gas industries. [/quote]
Role in 2010 BP Oil Spill
Among MMS's regulatory decisions contributing to the 2010 BP oil spill:
March 2008 - The mineral rights to drill for oil were purchased by BP at the MMS's Lease Sale #206, held at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
MMS's 2009 decision that acoustically-controlled shut-off valve (BOP) would not be required as a last resort against underwater spills at the site.
MMS's failure to suggest other “fail-safe” mechanisms after a 2004 report raised questions about the reliabilityof the electrical remote-control devices.
Prior to DirectorBirnbaum's appointment, MMS granted a categorical exclusion waiver on April 6, 2009 to BP exempting it from National Environmental Policy Act's requirements including a detailed environmental analysis, concluding the spill risk in that partof the Gulf was “minimal or nonexistent.” Such NEPA waivers have become routine at MMS, and the Interior department approves 250 to 400 per year for Gulfof Mexico projects.
MMS gave permission to BP and dozensof other oil companies to drill in the Gulfof Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA) that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from NOAA about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf. Those approvals, federal records show, include one for the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and resulting in thousandsof barrelsof oil spilling into the gulf each day.
MMS routinely overruled its staff biologists and engineers who raised concerns about the safety and the environmental impactof drilling proposals in the Gulf and in Alaska.