Government’s Offshore Drilling Commission Criticizes Government’s Moratorium

The Chairman of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission has criticized the Obama Administration’s deepwater drilling moratorium. Commission co-chairman Bob Graham, a former Democratic senator from Florida who was appointed to the Commission by president Obama, stated that there’s a “disconnect between Washington and the Gulf region about the sense of urgency needed.” Another co-chair, former Environmental Protection Agency Chief William Reilly, stated , “I come to  this experience with a much greater sense of the economic dislocation being experienced here than I had three days agao” before the commission began hearings in New Oreleans. “It’s not clear for me why it should take so long to reassure oneself about (safety) considerations on those rigs.”

 See the Times-Picayune report at http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/commission_leaders_moved_by_te.html#incart_rh for more about their statements.

Michael Bromwich spoke before the Commission on the need for a moratorium in order to enable the government to conduct a thorough safety review.   Mr. Bromwich is director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which used to be the Minerals Management Service. Mr. Reilly informed Mr. Bromwich of the economic consequences of a moratorium.

“If there’s a single point of consensus as we’ve been down here, it’s that the moratorium is doing very significant economic damage to this area,” said Reilly. “As Sen. Landrieu said there are only 33 rigs. How hard can it be to put inspectors on each one and draw conclusions that will allow a resumption of activity?”

After a federal court struck down the Interior Department’s first moratorium, the Department issued a new moratorium July 12 that lasts until Nov. 30. It’s been greeted with strong disapproval in Louisiana.  Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) testified July 13 before the Commission and against the moratorium.

See the Commission’s website at http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/ for more about their work and meetings.