Obama Administration

Salazar Didn't Focus On Reforming Minerals Management Agency Before Spill

Justin Elliott | May 31, 2010, 2:24PM

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:

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP To Gov't Last Year: We Can Handle A 300,000 Barrels-Per-Day Spill Just Fine

Justin Elliott | May 31, 2010, 1:03PM

A worker cleans up a contaminated beach in Port Fourchon, Louisiana on May 24, 2010

Of all the bad predictions and downright misinformation we've seen surrounding the Gulf oil spill, this one ranks pretty high: BP actually told the government last year that it was prepared to respond to a blowout flowing at 300,000 barrels per day -- as much as 25 times the rate of the current spill.

That assertion came in an Initial Exploration Plan for the well that ultimately blew out, filed with the Minerals Management Service in 2009. BP says in the document that it "has the capability to respond, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst-case discharge, or a substantial threat of such a discharge, resulting from the activities proposed in our Exploration Plan."

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Minerals Management Service

Probe Finds MMS Inspectors Got Free Peach Bowl Tickets, Looked At Porn

Justin Elliott | May 25, 2010, 1:02PM

Miami's Kyle Wright during the 2005 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl game against LSU

An inspector general report on the Lake Charles, LA, office of the Minerals Management Service found that inspectors accepted a free trip to the 2005 Peach Bowl paid for by an oil company.

The report (.pdf), released today in response to the Gulf Coast oil spill but not directly connected to it, also found "numerous instances of pornography and other inappropriate material on the e-mail accounts of 13 employees, six of whom have resigned. We specifically discovered 314 instances where the seven remaining employees received or forwarded pornographic images and links to Internet websites containing pornographic videos to other federal employees and individuals outside of the office using their government e-mail accounts."

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Minerals Management Service

FLASHBACK: The Sex And Oil Scandals Of The Minerals Management Service

Justin Elliott | May 6, 2010, 2:12PM

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.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Halliburton Role On Oil Rig Puts Firm Under Scrutiny Once Again

Justin Elliott | May 5, 2010, 11:16AM

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig on fire before it sank, and a sign at a Halliburton plant (inset)

Halliburton is back.

The Houston energy services giant once led by Dick Cheney became the corporate bête noire of the Bush years as one of the biggest (and most troubled) Iraq War contractors. But the company had largely faded from public view since President Obama entered office -- until now.

As the provider of crucial cementing services on the oil rig that exploded and set off the massive spill in the Gulf, Halliburton finds itself under scrutiny once again.

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