Podcast

Music/Announcer: This is a podcast from the U.S. Department of the Interior
Ron Tull: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a set of reforms that will include restructuring the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to establish a separate and independent safety and environmental enforcement entity. The following are the Secretary’s remarks from a press conference today.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar: Good afternoon.
We are now in the 21st day of what is a relentless and non-stop response to BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
We are battling one of the largest environmental catastrophes in decades. Interior’s public servants from the Minerals Management Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the United States Geological Survey are putting in long hours, with little sleep, as they work alongside other federal, state, and local partners. All together, more than 13,000 personnel are responding to the crisis in the Gulf.
We have four missions on which we have been focused since Day One.
First, we are putting all hands on deck to help BP stop its spill.
Second, we are fighting to protect and restore the great natural resources of the Gulf Coast, including Interior’s 24 national wildlife refuges and seven national park units that could be affected.
Third, we are working to get to the bottom of what happened and hold those responsible fully accountable.  
Fourth, we are evaluating what can be done differently to prevent this type of incident from ever happening again.
The many questions that arise from the Deepwater Horizon incident will take time to answer.  
The Joint Investigation that MMS and the U.S. Coast Guard are leading will get to the bottom of what happened on April 20.  
The 30-day review that the President asked us to undertake will help us understand what safety measures could be immediately implemented.  
The new OCS Safety Oversight Board I have established will allow us to evaluate the broader questions this incident raises about management, oversight, and safety on the OCS.
And today I am announcing that the National Academy of Engineering has agreed to my request to put a fresh set of eyes on the Deepwater Horizon incident. They will conduct an independent, science-based analysis of the accident’s root causes. They have great expertise and are highly respected.
These investigations and reviews will provide us important information that will help ensure that this never happens again.
But as we conduct these reviews, we must not hesitate to make immediate changes and reforms we know are needed.  
Since last January, we have been implementing reforms aimed at changing how the Department of the Interior and the Minerals Management Service do business.
We have issued new ethics standards for all MMS employees.
We terminated the controversial royalty-in-kind program.
We have balanced MMS’s portfolio to include offshore wind and renewable energy production.
We have aggressively implemented recommendations from our Inspector General and a committee chaired by Senators Bob Kerrey and Jake Garn.
We cancelled 5 proposed lease sales in the Arctic Ocean and Bristol Bay.
And we have established a clear, orderly, and science-based process for determining which areas on the Outer Continental Shelf may or may not be appropriate for oil and gas development.
Our program for reform is a drumbeat that must and will continue.
Today, we are making additional reforms to give the public servants of the Minerals Management Service more tools, more resources, more independence, and greater authority to enforce laws and regulations that apply to oil and gas companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf.  
Those reforms will include a restructuring of MMS. I believe the job of ensuring energy companies are following the law and protecting the safety of their workers and the environment should be independent from MMS’s leasing, revenue collection, and permitting functions.
That’s why I intend to use my authority, in coordination with Congress, to establish a separate and independent safety and environmental enforcement entity.
We will approach this restructuring responsibly and thoughtfully, and we will ensure the American people have a strong and independent organization holding energy companies accountable and in compliance with the law of the land.
In addition, I am announcing today that we will be submitting to Congress a proposal to provide an additional $29 million to strengthen and increase inspection of offshore oil and gas operations; conduct an independent investigation, complete engineering and environmental studies, and develop recommendations as a follow-on to the 30 day report to the President.  
Finally, we are also submitting a proposal to Congress to increase MMS’s authority to review exploration plans that companies submit. Currently, MMS is required by Congressional mandate to review exploration plans within 30 days. We want to increase the review period to 90 days, with an option to extend, to provide more time to conduct additional environmental analysis on exploration plans.
Additional time to review exploration plans would supplement additional environmental reviews that are conducted at several stages of the leasing and development process.  
Again, these reforms will not be the last that we will undertake. We will continue to work tirelessly to change how the Department of the Interior does business to make sure we are holding energy companies accountable, that the American people are getting a fair return from their resource, and that the safety of workers and the environment are protected.
Find out more about the Interior Department’s ongoing response to the BP oil spill, go to www.doi.gov/deepwaterhorizon. This has been a podcast from the U.S. Department of the Interior