So does this look like a government agency

[MyNameGoesHere]

or a deep water drilling propagandist organization?

Warning it is a PDF link, it was safe for me i.e. no virus or spyware.

http://www.mms.gov/Assets/PressConference11152004/MSGlossySingle_110404.pdf


This agency needs to be wiped out and start over with some real regulations if not out right banning of deep water drilling.

[Warpy]

1. The party boys have to face criminal negligence charges

right along with the BP executives who were responsible for drilling without adequate blowout protection.

Then the agency has to be restaffed with people who don't ascribe to the oilman's philosophy that the oil companies can do no wrong, so bring on the dancing girls.

[NYC_SKP]

2. A. That's from 2004. B. Yes, part of any their mission is promotion of the industry.

I'm not saying I like it, but it's not uncommon for federal agencies to promote the economic development of the assets they oversee.

Examples include the USDA (consider their bullshit pro-meat and pro-dairy food pyramids) and other three and four letter departments.

In truth, such agencies are supposed to balance the interests of businesses with the interests of the public (who own these assets).

The Department of Interior, of which the MMS is a subset, allows for mineral exploitation on public lands and offshore, but is also expected to protect the environment.

They need to do a better job of the latter, and chill on the former.

Again, that brochure is from 2004, but I don't doubt that there are more current similar promotionals.

:patriot:

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Salazar orders MMS breakup

http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=93547&rss=true

I know story did not register on DU

[BrklynLiberal]

4. We already know that MMS was in bed, LITERALLY, with the oil, gas and mining people.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/22/1643275/feds-neglect-to-collect-billions.html#ixzz0oiCSUFuO

Feds neglect to collect billions from big oil
The obscure federal agency that oversees the offshore drilling industry -- second only to the Internal Revenue Service in generating government revenue -- has a deeply troubled record of collecting royalties from the $1 trillion-a-year petroleum industry, records show.

That agency, the Minerals Management Service, has two main missions: To enforce drilling safety rules and collect billions in royalties. Since the April 20 BP Gulf rig blowout, scrutiny has focused almost exclusively on MMS' safety standards.

Yet critics -- including former MMS employees -- have long accused the agency of going light on the industry in collecting royalties. Government investigators have repeatedly chided the MMS for weak enforcement and loose standards in seeking the fees, potentially costing the government -- and taxpayers -- billions in unclaimed royalties.

In one notorious case, the MMS was literally found in bed with the petroleum industry: Two MMS employees were cited for having brief sexual relationships with oil company officials, according to a 2008 probe by the Interior Department's inspector general.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/22/1643275/feds-neglect-to-collect-billions.html#ixzz0omv0nijC


It will turn your stomach...