Trump May Combine Offshore Oil Regulatory Agencies Split After BP Spill

"WASHINGTON -- After the 2010 Gulf oil spill, the Obama administration broke the scandal-plagued federal agency that policed offshore drilling into separate bureaus. Now the Trump administration is considering putting it back together again.

The change, described by Interior Department officials and lobbyists familiar with the deliberations, would combine two agencies: the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which enforces regulations on offshore drilling safety; and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is in charge of leasing offshore tracts. Keeping those roles separate was a key recommendation of a presidential commission that investigated the Deepwater Horizon blast that killed 11 men and sent oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for months.

Merging the bureaus could send a signal that Interior is easing off on enforcement, right as President Donald Trump expands areas available for offshore oil drilling, according to Bob Graham, a former Florida senator who led the commission."

Bloomberg had the story June 8, 2017.

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"Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department" (New York Times: Sept. 10, 2008)