Interior drilling chief: We still need legislation, cash

The Interior Department has taken a suite of steps to bolster offshore drilling oversight and requirements under its existing powers, but is still seeking congressional action on some key items, a top official said Tuesday.

“It is not a long list but it’s an important list,” said Michael Bromwich, director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

Items on the list include legislation to lengthen the current 30-day deadline for acting on industry offshore-exploration plans; authorizing the Ocean Energy Safety Institute that Interior hopes to create; and increasing civil penalties for violating offshore drilling rules, he said.

Bromwich has repeatedly called the current maximum civil fines of $35,000 per day, per incident, far too low to deter violations — he said Tuesday that the figure is “laughable.”

Bromwich spoke on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and touched off the months-long BP oil spill.

His wide-ranging remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies addressed the steps taken thus far to bolster safety, as well as planning for further rules and the ongoing restructuring of the agency.

He said the fiscal year 2011 federal spending agreement enacted last week is a partial step toward reversing the “shameful” and years-long underfunding of offshore oversight.

President Obama last summer sent Congress a supplemental budget request seeking an additional $100 million.

“We were poised to hire the additional inspectors, environmental scientists, and permitting personnel that we have needed, but we didn’t have the funding,” Bromwich said.

The continuing resolution to fund the government through September provides $68 million above current spending for offshore regulation and revenue collections, with Bromwich’s agency receiving about $47 million of those funds.

“That is less than we need, but it is a significant sum, especially in a constrained budget environment where the funding of most other agencies is being cut,” Bromwich said.

He said this amount will allow “significant incremental progress” but cautioned more will be needed in the future, noting, for instance, that the agency “desperately” needs more engineers, inspectors and other safety personnel.

“We desperately need more environmental scientists and more personnel to do environmental analysis. We desperately need more personnel to help us with the permitting process. And much more,” Bromwich said.