Oil spill panel leader says drilling ban should end early, calls for leasing policy overhaul

William Reilly, a leader of the commission probing the BP oil spill, said the federal ban on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling should be lifted before its scheduled Nov. 30 expiration.

Asked if he believes the Interior Department ban should end early, Reilly replied, “I do.” The co-chairman of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling spoke in an interview that aired Sunday on Platts Energy Week.

He cited the report that the Bipartisan Policy Center provided the panel last week on the moratorium. The think tank’s analysis concluded Interior has imposed enough safeguards to allow drilling to safely resume.

“I think the language in the report does support early lifting,” said Reilly, who headed EPA under former President George H.W. Bush.

The Obama administration is under intense political pressure from Republicans, Gulf Coast lawmakers from both parties and the oil industry to ease the limits imposed in the wake of BP oil spill.

Elsewhere, Reilly said the commission’s hearing last Wednesday revealed the need to overhaul leasing policy to ensure a stronger role for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The scientific agency oversees marine species protections and the health of coastal ecosystems.

NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco said at the hearing that her agency was not a central player in the Obama administration’s March decision to expand offshore oil-and-gas drilling.

Reilly said in the interview that NOAA was not “adequately consulted.”

“The statutes that govern offshore drilling do not really require it, compel it, and clearly they are in need of reform,” Reilly said. He said the commission is likely to call for overhauling the process for deciding what areas are open for leasing.

“I assume that we will make some recommendations which will be taken very seriously because we have identified some gaps in information gaps, in expertise, that should be brought to bear on decisions of this sort,” Reilly said.


“To get the expertise that resides in NOAA and some of the other scientific agencies, it looks like some kind of statutory change will be necessary and we will look seriously at that possibility,” Reilly added.