Seeking answers in MMS's flawed culture

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Seeking answers in MMS's flawed culture

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Two weeks after BP's Macondo well blew out in the Gulf of Mexico, the federal government's Minerals Management Service finalized a regulation intended to control the undersea pressures that threaten deepwater drilling operations.

MMS did not write the rule. As it had dozens of times before, the agency adopted language provided by the oil industry's trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, and incorporated it into the Federal Register.

MMS received two favorable public comments about the regulation: one from the Offshore Operators Committee, an industry group, and the other from BP. The regulation stated: "BP, a large oil and gas company, expressed the importance of this rule and how they have been involved with MMS and industry to develop the industry standard."

The fact that BP - which has come under withering criticism for how it managed mounting pressure in the Macondo well - took partial credit for crafting the rule is not surprising. MMS has adopted at least 78 industry-generated standards as federal regulations, American Petroleum Institute records show.
....

James G. Watt, the man who created MMS, came to Washington in 1982 with a mission: to alter the way the government managed its natural resources. Coming off the hostage crisis in oil-rich Iran and gas shortages on the home front, he vowed to "mine more" and "drill more."

[gratuitous]

1. "Flawed"? On the contrary

MMS was working exactly the way it was designed to work. That is, it was absolutely intended to lead to an environmental catastrophe thanks to lax oversight and cozy relations with extractive industries. The taxpayers would provide lavish federal benefits to industry, and when it all went ker-flooey, the taxpayers could foot the bill for the clean-up, too.

Mission accomplished, baby!