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Wednesday, May 26. 2010
The Oil Tragedy Continues
Just when you think you’ve heard it all, out comes the Inspector General’s report that says the oil industry didn’t virtually write the inspections of it’s various off-shore oil rigs, the oil companies literally wrote the inspection reports — in pencil and then federal inspectors just copied over the pencil with pen before signing the reports. Thanks for that verbiage Olbermann!
Not to mention, employees of the Mineral Management Services (MMS), the regulatory arm of the Department of the Interior that is supposed to be a watchdog overseeing the energy industry, on a regular basis, accepted gifts, including a trip to the 2005 Peach Bowl in Atlanta, GA.
Also among those gifts: drugs. “Good” drugs. One inspector admitted to using meth while on the job. Me, I’m a guy who thinks all drugs should be legal and any legal adult with all his or her capacities should have the choice whether to use them or not. On the other hand, employers should also have the choice of whether to hire and/or employ someone who uses recreational drugs.
Considering the horror unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, someone who is high on meth — or cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, marijuana or alcohol — should not be allowed to work for the government in any capacity, especially one that regulates an industry, not just the energy industry, but all of them.
To be honest though, a meth addict working for the MMS is really the smallest part of the problem with the agency. Getting gifts that include expensive hunting and fishing trips, golf tournaments and Christmas parties are a somewhat larger part of the problem.
What’s really the problem: many of the inspectors are looking for higher paying jobs in the industry they are supposed to be regulating. So, a guy (or woman) who wants a job with British Petroleum is supposed to be inspecting the oilrigs in the Gulf of Mexico. What does that person do? Well, if he or she wants to eventually be an employee of BP, they certainly won’t write a report that says the blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon is dangerously faulty. Oh, why write the report at all? Have someone from BP write it and then just copy it over with a pen and sign it! Problem solved.
One inspector actually did inspections on oilrigs run by Island Operating Company after engaging in employment negotiations with that company. The inspections passed with flying colors and that inspector was eventually employed by Island Operating Company.
And this has been going on at least since George W. Bush came into office in 2001. Actually, it’s been going on since 2000.
Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, himself fairly cozy with the energy industry, said the report is “deeply disturbing.” Ya think? He said the report, “… is further evidence of the cozy relationship between some elements of MMS and the oil and gas industry. I appreciate and fully support the Inspector General’s strong work to root out the bad apples in MMS.”
Salazar is the guy who spearheaded the efforts to get President Obama to expand offshore drilling.
Bad apples? That implies it isn’t too serious a problem. The entire barrel is contaminated. Well, there are no doubt a few reliable and honorable people working in the Minerals Management Services, but as one MMS official, Larry Williamson of the Lake Charles District (the one overseeing offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico) admitted, “Obviously, we’re all oil industry. We’re all from the same part of the country. Almost all of our inspectors have worked for oil companies out on these same platforms. They grew up in the same towns. Some of these people, they’ve been friends with all their life. They’ve been with these people since they were kids. They’ve hunted together. They fish together. They skeet shoot together. They do this all the time.”
Larry Williamson is the manager of the Lake Charles District Office of the Minerals Management Services. He pretty much admits he and his coworkers are not only breaking ethics rules, they are breaking the law. See, if a regulatory employee takes a gift from someone he or she is supposed to be regulating, they are required by law to report it. But, according the IG report, even though MMS employees accepted more gifts than they can count, in only one instance were the gifts reported, as required by law.
That might be the one MMS employee to keep if and when Ken Salazar and President Obama shake up the department — that is, if that employee reported all the gifts he or she received, or just the one time.
When Salazar came on as the Secretary of the Interior last year, he vowed to split the Minerals Management Services into three different divisions, one specifically for inspections. This was in response to the scandal some years ago when President Bush’s Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, resigned after it was found out the office of MMS in Colorado was engaged in much the same behavior.
From that office, MMS officials were giving waivers to energy companies on paying royalties for the minerals they mined or drilled from public lands. According to some experts, the amount of money lost to these sweetheart deals could be as much as 10 billion dollars. Everyone agrees it’s at least one billion dollars.
All of this, in both offices (Colorado and Louisiana), occurred during the Bush years and began to decrease right after Democrats claimed control of the Senate and the scandal involving the Colorado office began to spew out casualties; people who were fired or resigned in the wake of the scandal. Luckily for Norton, who resigned as Secretary of the Interior in 2006, she was able to find a job relatively quickly (within six months) — as Lead Council for Shell Oil.
President Obama needs to get a hold of this disaster, not only to stop the oil from billowing into the Gulf of Mexico, but also to clean up the regulatory authority that allowed the crime to occur. He should ask himself if Ken Salazar is still the best person for the job of Secretary of the Interior. The president should push British Petroleum aside, and if Salazar objects, push him aside as well, and have the government take over the control and cleanup of this tragedy.
Someone ought to take charge of it; obviously, British Petroleum isn’t getting the job done.
And to end on a sad note: on Tuesday a memorial service for the 11 workers killed in the initial blast was held in Jackson, MS. In the horror of what continues to happen to the environment, we — I — sometimes forget 11 people died in this disaster.
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