Bush admin skipped re-cert process for the first blown-up well

[captain_kook]

Obama should be blamed for everything Bush did.
 
I get it.
 
but no

[Thomasj_tx]

kook, who was the head of the Dept of Interior in 2009 and who appointed him?

[captain_kook]

[Minerals Management Services] - MMS did not require BP to file a blowout plan when the company filed its exploration plan for the Deepwater Horizon rig last year and the agency underplayed the impact of a potential spill in its environmental impact statement on that region of the Gulf of Mexico.


The agency has been faulted for assessing inadequate penalties, averaging $45,000 over the last 12 years, as reported by ProPublica. In addition, MMS has referred very few potential criminal violations to the Interior Department's Inspector General, reports the Project on Government Oversight.

In general, the oil industry has been allowed to police itself by MMS, with producers and drilling contractors voluntarily abiding by a safety management program devised by the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group. When the agency sought to require audits every three years to make sure that oil companies were abiding by the program, the industry fought back and the proposal has yet to take effect.

The regulatory system for offshore oil rigs is considered more rigorous in Norway, Britain and other major oil producing countries. The safety record of U.S. offshore drilling does not compare well with overseas companies -- over the past 5 years, an offshore oil worker in the U.S. was more than four times as likely to be killed than a worker in Europe, and 23% more likely to sustain an injury, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data.


"We have seen platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that would never have been allowed in Norway," says Dr. Urban Kjellén of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The safety philosophy for the design of these installations is very different in Norway -- one of the things is that you segregate hazardous areas from non-hazardous areas by distance or explosion walls. That way, if you get leakage, if you get gas clouds and if they ignite, you are likely to limit the consequences and avoid a total loss of the platform. It's a barrier."


Both the oil rig disaster and the mining tragedy illustrated the weaknesses of the US regulatory approach, which involves a checklist of prescriptive requirements, as compared to the European approach, which is more oriented towards reducing the risk to a tolerable level, focusing on making sure that workplaces are designed to function in an optimal way and to minimize human errors.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/07/gulf-oil-rig-disaster-and_n_566806.html

[13]

CK is 100% correct and accurate on this.

He has the documented facts.

And you RW apologists have the usual undocumented "smack!"

[sweetwater5s9]

I was watching the hearings when Stupak was asked about a hearing eith MMS and other government officials.  He said that he would have those hearings, but obviously has not.  I sent his office an e-mail about 7 or 8 weeks ago asking when he was going to have those hearings and to date, have not received a reply.
 
Of course Obama and the Democrats are avoiding the obvious...

[captain_kook]

The acting inspector general of the U.S. Department of the Interior turned in a scathing report yesterday about allegations that Minerals Management Service (MMS) inspectors in the Louisiana region, during the administration of President George W. Bush, accepted lavish gifts from representatives of oil and gas production companies, possibly worked while under the influence of crystal methamphetamine, and may have allowed oil and gas production company personnel to fill out inspection forms.
 
You can read the report HERE.
 
Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar that of “greatest concern” to her “is the environment in which these inspectors operate -particularly the ease with which they move between industry and government. While not included in our report, we discovered that the individuals involved in the fraternizing and gift exchange -- both government and industry -- have often known one another since childhood.”
 
She also underlined to Salazar that “all of the conduct chronicled in this report occurred prior to 2007, and pre-dating your tenure as Secretary and your January 2009 Ethics Guide. While this conduct is dated, it is more evidence that there was, indeed, a much-needed change to the ethical culture of MMS.”
 
 
Federal regulations and agency ethics rules prohibit employees from soliciting or accepting gifts, including meals, costing more than $20, from a prohibited source.
 
Inspectors in the Lake Charles District accepted hunting and fishing trips from the Island Operating Company (IOC), an oil and gas production company, as well as tickets to sporting events such as the 2005 Peach Bowl, lunches and other gifts from representatives of oil and gas companies. MMS employees accepted invitations from oil and gas industry representatives to skeet-shooting contests, golf tournaments, crawfish boils, and Christmas parties. One offshore operating company provided a former MMS inspector -- who now works for the IOC -- with air transportation on a company plane to a college football game in Atlanta to watch the Louisiana State University play the University of Miami.
 
That former MMS inspector e-mailed to other MMS officials, on January 3, 2006, that “The 40 to 3 ass whipping LSU put on Miami was a lot more impressive in person. My daughter and I had a blast.”
 
 
“Two employees at the Lake Charles office also admitted to using illegal drugs during their employment at MMS,” Acting IG Kendall wrote. “We found that many of the inspectors had e-mails that contained inappropriate humor and pornography on their government computers. Finally, we determined that between June and July 2008, one MMS inspector conducted four inspections of IOC platforms while in the process of negotiating and later accepting employment with that company.”
 
 
By way of explanation, MMS Lake Charles District Manager Larry Williamson told the Acting Inspector General, “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.”
 
 
The investigation was kicked off by anonymous letter, dated October 28, 2008, addressed to the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Orleans, LA. The Inspector General writes that after MMS supervisor Don Howard was fired the inappropriate behavior “appears to have drastically declined.”
-Jake Tapper
 
 
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/05/interior-department-inspector-general-issues-report-detailing-sleaze-at-minerals-management-service.html

 

[Thomasj_tx]

Here are some real documented facts, not the hearsay of kook....

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by AP, the agency has released copies of only three inspection reports, from Feb. 17, 2009, March 3, 2009 and April 1, 2009. According to the documents, inspectors spent two hours or less each time they visited the massive rig. Some information appeared to be “whited out,” without explanation.

During his Senate testimony last week, Transocean CEO Steven Newman said the blowout preventer was modified in 2005. (unlike what kook claimed)

The strong inspection record led MMS last year (2009) to herald the Deepwater Horizon as an industry model for safety.

The Deepwater Horizon’s record was so exemplary, according to MMS officials, that the rig was never on inspectors’ informal “watch list” for problem rigs.

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9023118

[captain_kook]

Offshore accidents bring few penalties

Federal inspectors collect only 16 fines in nearly 400 investigations

By LISE OLSEN and ERIC NALDER


HOUSTON CHRONICLE

June 7, 2010
In the five years before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, federal investigators documented nearly 200 safety and environmental violations in accidents on platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, describing a stunning array of hazards that resulted in few penalties.


Workers plunged dozens of feet through open unmarked holes. Welding sparked flash fires. Overloaded cranes dropped heavy loads that smashed equipment and pinned workers. Oil and drilling mud fouled Gulf waters. Compressors exploded. Wells blew out.



And yet, in their investigations of nearly 400 offshore incidents, Minerals Management Service officials failed to travel to one-third of the accident scenes, collected only 16 fines and did not investigate every blowout as their own rules require.



BP, the region's leading offshore oil producer, reported more accidents and blowouts than any other oil company operating in Gulf waters, followed by Chevron, the region's third largest off-shore oil producer.


BP has had at least 47 since 2005; Chevron 46, based on a Houston Chronicle review of accidents investigated by MMS in the last five years and a decade of government reports on blowouts of oil wells.



Each major oil company paid only a single fine related to violations linked to those incidents. Both Chevron and BP spokesmen defended their companies' safety records and said their employee injury rates are low.


Toby Ordone, a BP spokesman, said the high number of accidents “is presumably because we have the highest number of (drilling) licenses.”


Chevron spokeswoman Margaret J. Cooper said the company has won several recent safety awards from MMS and has a policy of proactively reporting “every incident, regardless of size or impact.”


The Gulf's second-ranked producer, Shell, had 22 reported accidents and has paid no related fines.
Rare to pay fines
It was rare for any oil company to pay penalties for problems found in accidents investigated by the MMS, records show. The agency can charge $35,000 per day per violation. But many proposed violations get reduced or dropped during behind-the-scenes reviews. Records show that most final payments were small and took a year or more to collect.


One of the biggest delays in fine collections involved BP. The company took five years to pay a fine associated with a 2002 debacle where two oil well blowouts struck the same drilling rig in three months.


MMS officials did not respond to repeated requests for information and comment for this story.



The federal agency, charged with overseeing offshore oil operations and enforcing safety and environmental rules, routinely collects more penalties for violations found in routine inspections than they do after investigations into similar problems that caused injuries, major damage or oil spills, records show.


Several companies have been fined for leaving unmarked open holes, yet others were not penalized after workers got hurt falling through improperly barricaded gaps in elevated platforms. Only three of about 30 companies identified as polluters in MMS reports have so far paid related penalties, records show.



The MMS manual, its rule book of sorts, says investigations are meant to prevent reoccurrences, rather than to punish.


A former veteran agency official agreed that fines are an important enforcement tool. But he also argued that investigators tend to learn more safety lessons from accident investigations than from inspections — and that companies tend to cooperate more fully if they don't fear being fined.



“To me investigations are a lot more beneficial than inspections,” said Elmer “Bud” Danenberger, former chief of Offshore Regulatory Programs for MMS. “You learn much more because they are showing you things that can go wrong in the system.”



After the fiery explosion that nearly destroyed a BP rig in 2002, investigators discovered critical safety equipment alterations made without MMS approval. Because of those alterations, explosive blowout gases weren't diverted safely out to sea, the agency concluded. BP declined comment.
 
5 blowouts in 18 months
Accident reports show that deepwater well blowouts also have become more common: Five were reported in the last 18 months in the Gulf of Mexico alone....

[13.99]

Thomas, kindly don't confuse 13, she is liable to label you a prick!

[captain_kook]

Reforms promised
Since the Deepwater Horizon accident, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar vowed to revamp the agency, perhaps separating investigators and inspectors from officials who issue leases and collect federal oil royalties.

The move might give regulators more independence. The question, though, is whether the changes would address offshore standards and investigative procedures that seem to fall short of those imposed on land by agencies like OSHA and the EPA.

The government's own archive of accident reports show unaddressed mistakes are repeated — sometimes by the same company. Reports also show that some companies simply fail to report accidents as required — though it's not clear how many get punished or fined for failing to report.



In 2005, the death of an offshore worker prompted a major MMS probe into how a worker aboard a liftboat was killed as he conducted repairs at a hurricane-damaged platform operated by Forest Oil company. That investigation prompted a 33-page report with photos, diagrams and comprehensive suggestions.


Yet, when a contract diver lost his foot in an accident in 2007 while working aboard the same liftboat at another offshore location, the accident was not promptly reported and the MMS did no formal investigation, MMS and federal court

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/7039960.html

[captain_kook]

Thomas' distraction tactics aside:
 
the BUSH ADMINISTRATION was responsible for the shoddy way the MMS ran things.
 
 
The SAME PEOPLE were there during most of 2009

[13.99]

Kook, by your way of thinking (if you call it that) we should blame all of 9/11 on President Clinton, right?