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  May 17, 2010, 7:00 pm

Gulf oil driller Transocean beefs up lobbying, PR team

By Jim Snyder

The move by the offshore drilling company comes as the number of congressional inquiries into the spill expands.

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  May 17, 2010, 5:23 pm

Senate Dems seek criminal probe of BP

By Ben Geman

The Democrats asked Attorney General Eric Holder to explore whether BP made "false and misleading statements."

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  May 17, 2010, 5:11 pm

Green coalition blasts Senate climate bill

By Jim Snyder

The new Senate climate change bill has some green groups seeing red. 

Fifteen organizations, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, which is a Quaker lobbying group, have formed the Climate Reality Check coalition to oppose the legislation, released last week by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.). 

“The well-being of our nation and the world are being sacrificed for the interests of big polluters, which continue to rake in record profits at the expense of the environment and the public,” the group said in a statement.

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  May 17, 2010, 4:30 pm

Grijalva questions Interior’s plan to divide offshore drilling agency

By Ben Geman

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is putting new pressure on the Interior Department over its plans to overhaul the agency that regulates offshore oil-and-gas drilling, arguing they may not go far enough.

Grijalva, in a May 13 letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, called plans to divide the functions of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) a “step in the right direction” but added that several questions remain about the effort.

MMS oversees offshore exploration activities and also collects billions of dollars in production royalties.

Salazar is creating a new agency that will house what had been MMS’s inspection, investigation and enforcement operations, which will now be separate from leasing and revenue programs.

But Grijalva’s letter questions why the leasing function, which involves a number of environmental reviews, will not be housed in the new agency.

He also asks about several other issues, including MMS’s use of “categorical exclusions” that allow some drilling projects to avoid full environmental studies under the National Environmental Policy Act.

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  May 17, 2010, 4:02 pm

Top oil regulator to step down, report says

By Jim Snyder

One of the most senior regulators of the offshore drilling industry is stepping down, effective at the end of this month, according to this report in the Washington Post.

Chris Oynes, associate director for offshore energy and minerals management at the Minerals Management Service (MMS), has been criticized for being too close with industry, according to the Post. He announced his retirement in an e-mail.

Oynes' decision comes as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a series of changes at MMS to improve oversight of the oil industry in light of the ongoing spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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  May 17, 2010, 3:23 pm

Offshore drilling agency refuses to send witness to Senate oil spill hearing

By Ben Geman

The committee requested the appearance and Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) expressed his unhappiness about the failure to appear.

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  May 17, 2010, 2:27 pm

Reid: BP's 'greed' caused oil spill

By Eric Zimmermann

The "greed" of BP executives led directly to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) charged Monday.

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  May 17, 2010, 12:48 pm

NOAA: So far, 2010 warmest ever

By Ben Geman

Combined global land and ocean surface temperatures for the first four months of 2010 were the warmest on record

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  May 17, 2010, 12:43 pm

Facing rough waters in Washington, oil driller Transocean beefs up lobbying, PR

By Jim Snyder

Transocean Ltd. recently signed Capitol Hill Consulting Group after a massive Gulf Coast oil spill.

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  May 17, 2010, 7:52 am

E2 Round-up: BP reports partial success, Congress presses for more info on size of leak, and lawsuits spread with the oil

By Jim Snyder

* BP reports partial success at stemming oil flow

BP reported Sunday that its engineers have been able to partially stem the flow of oil by inserting a narrow tube into the ruptured pipe and diverting the crude to a ship on the surface.

Here's the account in The New York Times: “It’s working as planned,” said Kent Wells, a senior executive vice president of BP.

"The capture operation on Sunday was the first successful effort to stem the flow from the damaged well, which has been spewing oil since a rig exploded on April 20 and sank. 

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