House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

Darrell Issa Embarks On Charm Offensive, Lays Out Bipartisan Agenda (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | November 8, 2010, 1:12PM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

All the predictions had Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the chairman-in-waiting of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, embarking on a partisan subpoena spree, dredging up various conservatives' pet issues to take shots at the Obama administration.

But in making the media rounds over the past week as part of an apparent charm offensive, Issa insisted over and over again that he'll take a more middle-of-the-road approach.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Offshore Drilling Head Admits Agency Got Regulations From Industry

Rachel Slajda | August 13, 2010, 9:55AM

Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling platform sinks during Gulf Oil Spill Disaster

The director of the government's newly reorganized offshore drilling agency conceded yesterday that the agency has relied too heavily on the oil and gas industry when creating regulations.

"I think there is the perception and the reality that we have been heavily reliant on the domestic oil and gas industry in setting standards," Michael Bromwich, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said Thursday, the WSJ reports. "We're going to be exploring borrowing from alternative models."

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BP

Feds To Focus On Oil Co's, Gov't Regulators In Criminal Probe

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 11:29AM

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster washes ashore in Louisiana

The federal criminal investigation into the Gulf oil spill will focus on BP, Transocean and Halliburton -- and their connections to federal regulators.

The Washington Post reports today that investigators known as the "BP Squad," including people from the EPA, the Coast Guard, the FBI and other agencies, are assembling in New Orleans. They'll investigate not only the oil companies, but the role the former Minerals Management Service may have played in the disaster.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Enviro Agency Just Guessed At Size Of Major Spill When OK'ing Gulf Wells

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 5:19PM

Aerial view of oil being burned from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform

Earlier this month, we told you how the National Marine Fisheries Service, charged with protecting endangered marine life in the Gulf, drastically underestimated the size and effects of an oil spill in the Gulf. Its opinion allowed the government to sell leases to oil reserves in the Gulf -- including the now-leaking Macondo well -- to various oil companies.

Fisheries estimated that a "major" oil spill would be about half the size of the Ixtoc I disaster, which dumped an estimated 3.5 million barrels in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979.

TPMmuckraker has now found proof that Fisheries did little more than throw up their hands and guess when coming up with that estimation. But the former Minerals Management Service did much worse, estimating that such a spill would be about 15,000 barrels -- less than one percent of Fisheries' estimate.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Fisheries Plans To Revisit Opinion On Gulf Oil Spill Effects On Endangered Species

Rachel Slajda | July 8, 2010, 1:04PM

An endangered Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is treated after it was found covered in oil.

We told you yesterday about a 2007 document that shows that the National Marine Fisheries Service drastically underestimated the size of a potential oil spill and its effect on endangered species like sea turtles when they signed off on lease sales for drilling sites in the Gulf. A Fisheries official now tells TPMmuckraker that, once the leak is resolved the agency will revisit the opinion.

The agency is charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act, and part of its mandate is to consult with other federal agencies on whether a proposal -- in this case, opening more of the Gulf to oil and gas drilling -- will jeopardize the existence of protected species.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Enviro Agency Dramatically Underestimated Oil Spill Effects When Signing Off On BP Lease, Docs Show

Rachel Slajda | July 7, 2010, 3:17PM

A Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is recovered for clean up.

A federal agency charged with protecting endangered species signed off in 2007 on a new round of oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico, saying that even if the new drilling led to a major oil spill, only some 60 endangered turtles would be killed, according to the official agency opinion reviewed by TPMmuckraker. But in the two months since the Deepwater Horizon blew, government scientists say more than 400 sea turtles have been found dead so far.

In 2007, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforces the Endangered Species Act, was asked to give its "biological opinion" on the impact of new oil drilling leases -- including the lease of the now-leaking Macondo prospect -- on endangered species, including turtles, sperm whales and sturgeon. Under the law, the Minerals Management Service, which leases the underwater wells, had to get NMFS's sign-off that the drilling wouldn't jeopardize the populations of endangered species.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

BP Flacks' Guide: Do Not Promise 'Property, Ecology, Or Anything Else Will Be Restored To Normal'

Justin Elliott | June 8, 2010, 5:50PM

Here's a sobering tidbit from BP's guide for company spokespeople dealing with oil spills: "No statement shall be made containing ... Promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal."

The passage comes from BP's June 2009 Gulf of Mexico Regional Oil Spill Response Plan, made available by the Minerals Management Service. Check out the monster document right here (the flacks' guide is in Appendix X, page 528).

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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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