Oil industry ‘captured’ the federal agency that should have regulated it
Ever hear of the term “regulatory capture?”
It was coined to apply to agencies such as the federal Minerals Management Service, created in 1982 to oversee oil and mining on federal property, including offshore drilling. Over time, MMS became captive to the industries it was supposed to regulate, serving as an advocate for industry interests and an apologist for its excesses and repeatedly siding with the industry over the taxpayer on financial issues. With its lax enforcement, it made agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission seem like bulldogs by comparison.
Those problems peaked during the Bush administration, when top Interior Department officials ignored repeated reports from the Government Accountability Office warning that the agency was giving sweetheart deals to industry, losing hundreds of millions of dollars that ought to be going to the federal treasury. Later, investigations proved that agency officials had been accepting lucrative gifts from oil companies, and that “a culture of ethical failure” permeated MMS.
The Obama administration cleaned up some of that mess, for example by ending the program that had cost taxpayers so much money. But in light of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, it clearly did not act aggressively enough to reverse the agency’s pro-industry bias on questions of environmental protection and safety.
As The Washington Post reports:
The federal agency responsible for regulating offshore oil drilling repeatedly ignored warnings from government scientists about environmental risks in its push to approve energy exploration activities quickly, according to numerous documents and interviews.
Minerals Management Service officials, who receive cash bonuses for meeting federal deadlines on leasing offshore oil and gas exploration, frequently altered their own documents and bypassed legal requirements aimed at ensuring drilling does not imperil the marine environment, the documents show.
This has dramatically weakened the scientific checks on offshore drilling that were established under landmark laws such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, according to those who have worked with MMS, which is part of the Interior Department…
MMS officials also ignored the advice of its staff experts. In 2006, then-MMS biologist Jeff Childs provided a detailed analysis of how the Exxon Valdez spill had harmed generations of fish in Prince William Sound, and how a future spill could do the same in the Beaufort Sea. But Childs’s conclusion that “a large oil spill . . . is likely to result in significant adverse effects on local [fish] populations requiring three or more generations to recover” would have forced MMS to conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement before auctioning off a lease there.
“I have concerns about Jeff’s analysis and will not insert it into the [Environmental Assessment] being sent to HQ at this time,” wrote Deborah Cranswick, chief of the environmental assessment section at MMS, in a June 23 e-mail to her Alaska colleagues. “I believe that Regional management needs to review it first because Jeff has concluded new significant impacts from oil spills. This will trigger an EIS — and thus delay the lease for at least a year.”
Six days later, Paul Stang, Alaska MMS regional supervisor for leasing and the environment, sent a hand-written note to Childs saying, “As you know, a conclusion of significance under NEPA means an EIS and delay in sale 202. That would, as you can imagine, not go over well with HQ and others.”
According to the Post, “this pattern of dismissing biologists’ input has continued under the Obama administration.”
Sadly, that doesn’t surprise me. Changing an ingrained culture is difficult, and I doubt the administration made it the priority it clearly deserved to be. Given the tenor of the times, cracking down on oil and gas drilling on behalf of environmental concerns would have provoked howls of outrage, with the loudest howls no doubt coming from many of those who now criticize the administration for failing to protect the Gulf. But that doesn’t excuse the inaction in any way.
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224 comments Add your comment
RW-(the original)
May 24th, 2010
10:28 pm
Well somebody is finally getting fed up with the feds.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/05/24/jindal-to-obama-were-tired-of-waiting-for-the-feds-to-help-with-the-spill/
Scout
May 24th, 2010
10:28 pm
md:
Excellent points.
Also, do you remember the debacle surrounding that case with tet knucklehead Gov. of Illinois?
That case was shut down way, way too soon. You ALWAYS wait for the money to change hands or for the deal to be consumated. The U.S. Attorney’s office made the raid/arrest way too early and shut the wire tap/case down.
Why? They were getting very, very close to having President Elect Obama on that wire incriminating himself for an indicatable “Quid Pro Quo” offense. I honestly believe Bush (who would have been getting briefings about Obama’s role in this) had it shut down early as he didn’t want the ensuing turmoil and riots that might occur with a indictment and/or impeachment of the first black President. He did Obama a big, big favor.
Scout
May 24th, 2010
10:31 pm
I hear you. Here’s is one more quote you may not of seen that may help a little. Also, from “Once a Warrior King” ………………..
“I have the sense from time to time that I am not alone, and I suspect that despite the limited understanding we have of events in distant places, there will always be those among us who have the gleam of the quest in their eyes. They are people of every sex and station and they yearn to be challenged to a cause. They will always be looking for that wrong to right, that ill to cure, that song to sing; and there will always be those who will go to arms in aid of the helpless and the downtrodden. Ignoring the political issues of the moment, these people will champion the weak and the poor in the face of evil and tyranny. And no matter what the outcome, in their romantic hearts they will always keep the secret, if secret it must be, that they are better men for having held the lamp beside the golden door”.
I have it in “caligraphy” on my den wall …………….
Del
May 24th, 2010
10:50 pm
Taps y’all…stay safe
Christian
May 24th, 2010
11:44 pm
Has anyone considered blowing up the area near site so the earth will create its own seal?
Statists Debunked Yet Again!
May 25th, 2010
2:52 am
The government in a rare admission against interest has confessed that they are subject to corporations like BP. They are in the inferior position compared with corporations like BP. In other words, BP is an overlord of the government. BP has more substance than the Federal Government. More gravitas. More pull. More juice. Got it, puny voters? You can not politically pool your collectivized will in order to keep the corporations in line. The government can not act as a check and balance against corporations. It has just admitted that. That argument has been settled. I expect them to lie…er, I mean “clarify” these recent remarks, but they don’t have to bother because most are zombies. Making government bigger only further empowers corporations. Big Government=Big Business. The Statists’ perpetual “solution” to having lost the argument yet again: make government even bigger.
Rightwing Troll
May 25th, 2010
6:41 am
Wow! Where did you read all that?
I read an article too… All it had to say was that BP was a company that produces oil, and the Government, well not really sure what the governement produces but if you dip it water it will leave a slick behind but I digress, anyway what this poor hapless reporter had to say was basically that BP was better equipped to handle this than the government.
And to my simple mind, this makes sense. I know our governement is wasteful, but I can’t imagine why the Federal government would have deep well drilling equipment lying about…
And how does this make government bigger? I mean you described the outcome, now lets drill down to the details, see I’m a details guy.
I’m still waiting for that list of three impeachable offenses. And a list of taxes that have gone up since Obama took office.
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
6:50 am
RWT – 6:41 – I’m assuming you’re referring to the 2:52 post … to which, all I can say is “holy cow” … it takes some serious pretzel logic to want government to stay out of business, to be small enough to drown in a bathtub AND to be experts in … well … everything (not to mention, have all the same tools at their disposal as every other industry on the planet)
A CONSERVATIVE
May 25th, 2010
6:59 am
JAY…….the correct term is CORRUPTED…..CORRUPTED…..CORRUPTED….YUO NEED TO LEARN TO SPELL the correct term..
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 25th, 2010
7:04 am
Home sales, prices rise
Higher demand fuels increase in cost. Federal tax credit cited as stimulating growth from 2009. -Urinal
Damn, maybe I missed something….
Increased home sales led to higher home prices in April across metro Atlanta, local real estate experts say.
Nevermind, it’s just the AJC milking the results from April, when there was a tax credit.
You don’t want to talk about May, do ya?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 25th, 2010
7:08 am
The pipe in question has broken, and it has come as a shock to learn that it is beyond our capabilities to fix it.-Bookman, Constipation
Bush would have fixed it, just sayin….
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
7:08 am
“You don’t want to talk about May, do ya?”
well, considering the month isn’t over and the data isn’t in … no. the same way we don’t want to talk about who won the 2010 World Series, who won the Peachtree Road Race or how the first day back to school went …
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
7:09 am
“Bush would have fixed it, just sayin….”
yeppers, he would have stood on an oil platform somewhere else and declared “mission accomplished” and that, my friendly, would have been that.
Disgusted
May 25th, 2010
7:15 am
I know our governement is wasteful, but I can’t imagine why the Federal government would have deep well drilling equipment lying about…
. . . just as I was saying last night. No equipment, no expertise—we’re a captive of the oil companies in trying to stop this gusher (it’s much more than a “leak”).
USinUK
May 25th, 2010
7:20 am
Disgusted – 7:15 – but why should they have equipment / expertise? seriously, if the US oil companies aren’t nationalized, why should the government spend money on those salaries and equipment?
Disgusted
May 25th, 2010
7:46 am
but why should they have equipment / expertise? seriously, if the US oil companies aren’t nationalized, why should the government spend money on those salaries and equipment?
Didn’t say the government should, USinUK. I was reacting to a blogger’s implication that somehow having more “Management 101″ meetings with federal and agency heads would somehow help effect a faster, more effective solution to the oil well leak. That’s cheap political opportunism, not a serious response to the problem.
Bill Orvis White
May 25th, 2010
7:52 am
Poor Liberal Jay just doesn’t get it. He and his liberal ilk don’t understand that there’s an energy demand out there that requires us to drill for more resources that actually work. Wind and solar is a total joke and has been proven to fail time and again. I think Liberal Jay is un-American just like this installed-president for so many reasons. The biggest reason is that suggesting to end oil production is a complete economy-killer: jobs dies and spending ceases. This is simple Economics 101 which far-left writers like Jay don’t understand. We need to expand offshore drilling, make cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans more affordable, end public transportation while double-deckering the freeways. There is no proof that having too many cars on the road is bad for our health. That is far-left gobbleygook.
God Bless,
Bill
stands for decibels
May 25th, 2010
7:54 am
Bush would have fixed it
If only he’d had 9½ years to learn how to do his job, he would’ve become a great Preznit.
Great, I tells ya.
Jay
May 25th, 2010
7:54 am
Well, if you put it like that, Bill, you’re absolutely right.
I do not get it.
stands for decibels
May 25th, 2010
8:01 am
This is simple Economics 101
I understand all Internet traditions. One of which is, nearly anyone who asserts in an online forum that “this is simple Economics 101,” doesn’t actually comprehend what real-life economists have to say about any issue being discussed.
godless heathen
May 25th, 2010
8:24 am
Yea put the Government in charge of fixing the oil spill. By the time they get all the MWBE paperwork and the environmental impact studies done the well will have surely run dry.
If it is turned over to the Feds, BP will stand for Barry’s Problem.
Edward
May 25th, 2010
12:27 pm
If Gulf Coast residents are going to keep electing conservative Republicans to office who view any kind of safety or environmental regulation as “communism” or “socialism” then they have nobody but themselves to blame for this disaster. I was especially amused to hear Sarah “Drill Baby Drill” Plain claim that campaign contributions from BP to Obama were the cause of this disaster. Its getting harder and harder to take this woman seriously as an adult let alone an candidate for office.
Bill Orvis White
May 25th, 2010
1:04 pm
@Jay
I’m happy to hear that you agree with me that you don’t get it. At least you’re honest and I respect that in you. Maybe that’s why I read your drivel online-who knows.
If you or anyone sticks around me long enough, you will learn quite a bit. I’m a businessman who does well when Big Gov’t gets off my back. When taxe$ are low, I can hire more good workers in my business. If an installed-leader like Hussein Obama comes in telling me what to do with my workplace and employees while taxing me to death, I’m on America’s Economic Deathbed. I won’t get a bailout. I won’t get a tax credit. No, I’ll get Uncle Sam sending me more mail that uses the money that came out of my pocket in the first place.
The point is, alternative energy is nonsense. We cannot possibly power up any of these Southern states without good old-fashioned oil and nuclear energy.
Enviro-whackos just need to get a job, stop sitting in trees and get over themselves. It’s no wonder that Communist China is beating us at everything. We have become a bedwetter nation whereby we expect handouts from the Feds. I never got a handout. I worked hard to build my business.
Amen,
Bill
Gary R
May 26th, 2010
7:43 pm
Have they considered injecting water to see if it would freeze into a plug?