Obama Appoints Lawyer to Overhaul Oil Drilling Agency, will make case for comprehensive energy bill

[jefferson_dem]

Obama Appoints Lawyer to Overhaul Oil Drilling Agency
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON — President Obama will use his first Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday night to make the case for a comprehensive energy bill that would reduce the nation’s dependence on oil, and he will name a former Justice Department inspector general to revamp the agency that oversees oil drilling, administration officials say.

The White House announced that Michael R. Bromwich, a Washington lawyer who served in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, would lead the effort to overhaul the Minerals Management Service, the agency that has come under criticism for being too close to the oil companies it regulates.

“For a decade or more, the cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency was allowed to go unchecked,” President Obama said in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon. “That allowed drilling permits to be issued in exchange not for safety plans, but assurances of safety from oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore.”

After 17 months in office that have included combat in two wars, a financial crisis to rival the Great Depression and passage of a landmark health care law that will remake one-sixth of the American economy, Mr. Obama has chosen the solemn setting of the Oval Office to talk to the nation about the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The address will be short, about 15 minutes, and will have four main themes, officials say.

First, the president will lay out how his administration will deal with the oil gushing into the Gulf right now, and what must be done to clean it up over the short and long-term. Second, he will outline the steps his administration is taking to help protect businesses and people suffering as a result of the spill.

Third, he will outline changes in government to “ensure that a disaster such as this never happens again,” one official said. And finally, Mr. Obama will make the case for his long-stalled energy bill.

Here is what to look for:

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/us/politics/16obama.html?adxnnl=1&src=twt&twt=nytimes&adxnnlx=1276639802-54G/CF ehsPZFGXz B2byg&pagewanted=print

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. As long as he points out the history of regulation of the oil industry

[Cha]

2. Rec but it's still at hovering a zero so

evidently there's some anti-climate bill watchers here.

I'm excited about it..we need to start that Climate Bill..we need 60 votes too.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jody]

4. IMO a scientist/engineer has a better grasp of the technology needed to overhaul the agency.

It's lawyers/politicians/financiers that created the loopholes that allowed the BP disaster.

[global1]

5. Will Obama Now Be Criticized For Bringing In A Lawyer To Oversee The MMS Redo As Opposed.......

to his Departmental head Salazar?

[jefferson_dem]

6. What President Obama will say tonight (Politico)

What President Obama will say tonight

...

President Barack Obama’s speech to the nation Tuesday night will include an accounting of the administration’s response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an outline for how to rebuild coastal communities in the region facing economic and environmental disaster, and a plea to enact comprehensive energy legislation, according to a preview of the speech by senior administration officials.

In his 18 minute address – the first he has ever given from the Oval Office – Obama won’t directly address the issue of climate change, the officials said, but he will use the spill as an example of why the United States needs to end its addiction to oil. He also won’t directly confront the controversial issue of cap and trade, although the president still believes that putting a price on carbon would be the most effective way of reducing carbon emissions..

And he will pledge to work to get Congress to pass energy legislation, officials said. The consequences of not acting on energy reform “are now in plain sight,” one senior administration official said.

The president will begin by looking back, detailing what happened on April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank off the coast of Louisiana. He will detail the response effort – 30,000 workers spread out across four states and the authorization of 17,000 National Guard troops to be called up at Gulf Coast governors’ discretion (“and fully paid for by the federal government,” a second senior administration official stressed.)

Obama will discuss a long-term plan to restore the communities built on the Gulf Coast and reliant on the water, according to the administration officials. He’ll note his meeting with BP executives scheduled for Wednesday and his call for the company to set up a fund to pay compensation claims to workers and residents in the region “that have been harmed as result of the company’s recklessness,” the second official said.

The president, the officials said, will outline initiatives to make sure a spill of this magnitude does not happen again. He’ll urge the national commission he established to look into the oil spill to complete its assessment of the deepwater drilling moratorium as quickly as possible because of the strain it has put on oil workers in the area. And the president will also tout his newly named head of Minerals Management Services, Michael Bromwich, to stress that his role is to act as an oil industry watchdog.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38585.html#ixzz0qy2U7p40

[Cha]

9. He sounds like a good watch dog.

<snip>

"For a decade or more, the cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency was allowed to go unchecked," Obama said in a statement. "That allowed drilling permits to be issued in exchange not for safety plans, but assurances of safety from oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore."


"While Bromwich has no significant experience with oil and gas issues, he has a reputation for cleaning up embattled organizations. In addition to serving as as inspector general for the Justice Department under President Clinton for five years, he worked as the District Metropolitan Police Department's independent monitor on the issue of excessive force and as the independent investigator for the Houston Police Department's crime lab. He also served as an associate counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation in the late 1980s."

<more>
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/06/michael-bromwich-a-former-just.html

[Drunken Irishman]

7. We need less talk, more action.

Or something like that.

[PopSixSquish]

8. Before Anyone Gets Twitchy about Him, Google is Your Friend

Michael R. Bromwich

- was one of the federal prosecutors on the Oliver North case

- was the inspector general in the Justice Dept which investigated the misconduct in the FBI laboratory

- served as special counsel to the board of directors of El Paso Corp., after an explosion involving a natural-gas pipeline owned by an El Paso unit killed 12 campers in New Mexico. El Paso Corp later paid a $15.5 million civil penalty in a settlement agreement with the US government and up to $86 million in pipeline improvements

- signed on to a petition earlier this year urging the Obama administration and Congress to stick with civilian courts, instead of military tribunals, to try terrorism suspects along with many other former Justice Department officials

So far, this guy seems like the right sort of fellow for this job...

[Cha]

10. I googled him straightaway...thanks. nt