Aug 26, 2010, Thursday, Obama news in NOLA

NOLA: President Barack Obama's planning for expansion of offshore oil drilling questioned

The co-chairmen of the national commission investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were surprised and dismayed Wednesday to learn that President Barack Obama didn't consult with top federal environmental officials before announcing plans to expand offshore oil drilling in March.

Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, testifies before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington on Wednesday.
"If you're developing a policy to expand offshore oil and gas exploration to the extent that the president announced, consultation with the agency with responsibility for oceans management and regulation and your overall umbrella agency, your Council for Environmental Quality, would be two of the people on the consultation list," said former Florida governor and senator Bob Graham, a co-chairman of the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

Graham's comment followed testimony from Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Jane Lubchenko, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who were among a series of witnesses at the second hearing of the commission named by Obama to make recommendations on how to prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spills resulting from offshore drilling.

In March, a month before the blowout at the BP well, the Obama administration announced it wanted to open vast new expanses of the Outer Continental Shelf, including in the Gulf of Mexico, for drilling.

In response to questions from members of the commission about whether they were consulted by Obama or Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in advance of that decision, Sutley and Lubchenko circled around the question before delivering answers that indicated they weren't.

Said Sutley: "Well, I'd just say, again, from CEQ's perspective, we viewed those decisions and then announcements as being within the purview of the secretary of Interior and his responsibilities under OCSLA (the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act). So we weren't asked and wouldn't expect to be asked ahead of time whether they should or what level of environmental analysis is appropriate for the kinds of planning and decisions that result from that March announcement."


View full sizePablo Martinez Monsivais, The Associated PressThe chairmen of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling, William K. Reilly, left, and former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, right, listen to Nancy Sutley, testify on Wednesday.
"I'm disappointed that CEQ particularly, which is in the heart of the executive office of the president, was not involved, which seem to go directly to the heart of its responsibility," said commission co-chairman William Reilly, who was a senior staffer at CEQ in the Nixon administration.

Likewise, Terry Garcia, executive vice president of the National Geographic Society, a member of the commission who pressed the question, said: "NOAA is responsible for the marine environment and marine resources, and we're talking about the Outer Continental Shelf, so if you don't go to NOAA (to get an environmental assessment) I'm not sure who you would go to."

Members of the commission said they were worried that the voices of environmental science were not well enough heard or heeded in the decision-making about drilling and that, perhaps in the case of NOAA, it lacked the resources to do the depth of research that would be demanded.

Elizabeth Birnbaum, who was director of the Minerals Management Service from July 2009 until just after the April 20 blowout of the BP well, said her agency backed the decision to expand drilling, but noted that what Obama was doing was scaling way back on a plan the Bush administration had presented on its last day in office.

MMS was much maligned in the wake of the Gulf oil disaster for being in the pocket of the industry it was supposed to regulate and has since been reorganized by Salazar. At Wednesday's hearing, which was held at the Ronald Reagan Building, Birnbaum and two predecessor -- Randall Luthi and Thomas Kitsos -- defended the honor and record of MMS and its employees.

Birnbaum said it was difficult to avoid the close connections between those who work in the oil and gas industry and those that regulate it.

"Historically, people with experience working for the industry have been those with the knowledge necessary to inspect a rig or platform," she said. "The only way to eliminate this connection would be to provide extensive on-the-job training for offshore inspectors. But even with that, there would still be no silver bullet to eliminate the close connection between offshore inspectors and the employees of the industry they regulate. They will still live in the same communities," along the Louisiana and Texas coast.