Gulf oil spill: Interior secretary, other officials to be questioned by Congress

A week after grilling executives of the companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Congress this week turns its attention to the federal agency charged with overseeing offshore drilling. 

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is due to appear at back-to-back Senate hearings Tuesday, first before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and then before the Environment and Public Works Committee, as lawmakers step up their investigation of the spill.

Salazar and other administration officials will report on efforts to stop the leak, estimated at 210,000 gallons per day, and arrest the spread of spilled oil. A number of lawmakers also are eager to grill Salazar and others about the activities of the Minerals Management Service, the agency in the Interior Department charged with enforcing safety and environmental rules for offshore energy exploration.

"It is critically important to hear the administration's point of view and to get their take on what safety lapses occurred and if any regulatory breakdowns happened at the Minerals Management Service that may have contributed to this terrible accident,'' Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) said last week during a hearing by the House Energy and Commerce's oversight and investigations panel.

Salazar has moved to split the Minerals Management Service into two agencies – one to oversee leasing of federal lands and waters for energy exploration and to collect royalties for the U.S. Treasury and the other to inspect drilling operations and enforce safety and environmental regulations.

BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay will be back on Capitol Hill on Monday and Tuesday.

He will appear Monday, along with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. McKay will testify Tuesday before the Senate Commerce Committee, along with Steven Newman, president and chief executive of drilling-rig operator Transocean; and the U.S. Coast Guard commandant, Adm. Thad W. Allen.

-- Richard Simon, reporting from Washington

Photo:  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Credit: Evan Vucci / Associated Press

Comments

[Bill Carson]

MMS and Massachusetts

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is due to appear May 18 , 2010, for several Senate hearings this Tuesday. Many lawmakers are looking forward to examine the leadership of the Minerals Management Service. The Interior Department is charged with enforcing environmental and safety rules for energy exploration.

On April 28.2010 Ken Salazar announced his decision at a joint Massachusetts State House news conference with Gov. Deval Patrick voting to go forward with the Nantucket, Massachusetts wind turbine project. The same day of this decision more than 5000 barrels of oil had poured into the Gulf of Mexico. (one barrel equals 42 gallons ) .

In 2008 an internal investigation it was found many at Minerals Management Services were involved with substance abuse. It was stated that workers accepted gifts and trips.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has decided to make a decision on the Nantucket ocean wind project himself. The decision was to go forward with the first ocean wind project the very day of the Gulf oil spill!

Secretary Salazar has now decided to split the MMS into two agencies on the heels of going forward with the wind turbine project. We have to all question the regulatory breakdowns happening at the Minerals Management.

Every resident of Massachusetts should question the judgment of the Mineral Management Service ocean wind turbine decision before any more projects approved by MMS go forward! Did the MMS since 2009 put to much emphasis on wind and other renewable energy sources?

[Matt Brown]

I feel like this questioning and grilling should be happening as I write this, how can anybody sit around enjoying their Sunday while oil continues to gush out into the Gulf of Mexico. And what were these meatheads doing before this happened--obviously not their jobs, or this wouldn't of occurred. Seems like Ken Salazar and his pals were asleep at the wheel and should be held accountable--as in jail time. Make no mistake about it, this is Barack Obama's Katrina and he's failing as far as I am concerned.

[Bill Carson]

We Have Got To Question Kem Salazar on Cape Wind ! Did he make poor judgements there !

HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL GET CANCER FROM THE OIL -THE WHOLE GULF ?

How likely are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in crude oil to cause cancer?

The US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has determined that some PAHs may reasonably be expected to be carcinogens.

Some people who have breathed or touched mixtures of PAHs and other chemicals for long periods of time have developed cancer. Some PAHs have caused cancer in laboratory animals when they breathed air containing them (lung cancer), ingested them in food (stomach cancer), or had them applied to their skin (skin cancer).

Your incident command will pass out the MSDS ,Material Safety Data Sheet, in affected areas .
How do we know ?

On April 27, 2003, eight years ago the Bouchard Barge B-120 hit an obstacle in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts creating a 12-foot rupture in its hull and discharging an estimated 100,000 gallons of No. 6 oil. The oil is known to have affected an estimated 90 miles of shoreline, killing 450 numerous bird species the day it happened

[Peggy]

The Oil Spill - the oil’s natural processes in the water should not be interrupted or changed or altered in any way because the unknown risk factor is too great. The oil spill in the water needs to be further and completely separated from the water. Scientists need to determine which fabric type would work as a strained, similar to separating cream from milk using cheese cloth or muslin in a cow dairy farm. In addition, people need to be kept off of the beaches so that the oil globs are contained, and can more efficiently be cleaned up off of the beaches. When the fabric type is determined, it should be netted under a portion of the spill and lifted upward where it is then poured into an oil refinery container for use.