TPMMuckraker Interior Department: May 2010
Obama Administration
Salazar Didn't Focus On Reforming Minerals Management Agency Before Spill
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service has long been known to have an intensely intimate relationship with the extractive industries it regulates. But when President Obama, and his Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, took office in 2009, they proceeded to make some changes to ethics rules in the wake of a sex and drugs scandal in MMS' Denver office -- and that's about it.
The Times has a look at why the administration failed to order a full overhaul at MMS:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (13) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: Barack Obama, Interior Department, Ken Salazar, Minerals Management Service, Obama Administration
Minerals Management Service
FLASHBACK: The Sex And Oil Scandals Of The Minerals Management Service
An oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon accident, and the seal of the Minerals Management Service (inset)
Of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said it best on Tuesday: "In the Bush administration, these were the guys that were having sex orgies and pot parties and weren't showing up for work."
As the government agency that regulates offshore drilling, MMS is already under scrutiny for its handling of the rig that exploded and caused the oil spill. It's not yet clear whether there were missteps by the agency, though the Washington Post reported earlier this week that MMS' environmental impact assessments of the Deepwater Horizon rig had not considered the possibility of a major spill.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: Bill Nelson, Bush Administration, Deepwater Horizon, Interior Department, Minerals Management Service
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