Nick Snow
Washington Editor
The US House Oversight and Investigations Committee strongly criticized the US Department of the Interior's response to the Macondo deepwater well blowout and accident more than a year ago in a report issued before the committee's June 2 hearing on recovery efforts in the time since.
Some of the report's conclusions may reflect a Republican-controlled committee's partisan viewpoint of a Democratic administration's hurried response to a rapidly developing emergency as oil leaked from the blown out well. Others raised some strategic questions about managing federal offshore resources going forward.
"The mosaic of evidence presents a troubling picture: Much of the suffering and loss from the spill was made worse by the poor decisions of administration officials," committee chairman Darrell E. Issa (R-Calif.) said as he released the report. When the Obama administration did act, he continued, its major step was a hasty bureaucratic reorganization instead of an economic and coastal recovery effort.
In his written testimony, US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement Director Michael R. Bromwich said bodies ranging from US President Barack Obama's independent oil spill commission and DOI's Inspector General to multiple House and Senate committees have highlighted the need to reform not only the way Interior does business, but of how oil and gas operations are carried out on the US Outer Continental Shelf.
"Many of the recommendations presented in these reports have validated the actions we have been undertaking to promote safety in offshore oil and gas operations," he said. "These changes were necessary to ensure that industry has the tools available to help prevent a spill like this from happening again."
Major challenges
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and other witnesses described problems with the response. But it was Frank Rusco, the Government Accountability Office's energy and science director, who suggested that DOI faces significant challenges as it completes reorganization of what formerly was the Minerals Management Service.
"While this reorganization may eventually lead to more effective operations, we have reported that organizational transformations are not simple endeavors and require the concentrated efforts of both leaders and employees to realize intended synergies and accomplish new organizational goals," he told the committee. "In that report, we stated that for effective organizational transformation, top leaders must balance continued delivery of services with transformational activities."
As of December 2010, DOI had not implemented many of GAO's recommendations to address material weaknesses and challenges, Rusco continued. BOEMRE's challenge as its reorganization continues remains "providing reasonable assurance that billons of dollars owed to the public are being properly assessed and collected, and maintaining focus on its oil and gas oversight responsibilities," he said.
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