By Neela Banerjee, Tribune Washington Bureau –
WASHINGTON — Two years after the Deepwater Horizon explosion unleashed the worst oil spill in American history, Congress has failed to take meaningful action to prevent a similar disaster, according to a new report from members of a blue-ribbon presidential panel.
The report card cited significant progress by the administration and the oil industry, giving them a “B” and a “C-plus,” respectively, for their efforts to bolster safety, spill response and resources. Congress, however, got a “D” for its inability to “enact any legislation responding to the explosion and spill.”
The assessments were graded against the panel’s year-old recommendations.
The report by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling complained that Congress has failed to pass legislation requiring the offshore oil and gas industry to bear the costs of federal oversight through fees on leasing and permitting reviews. The presidential panel had also recommended that the $75 million liability cap for offshore oil spills be increased substantially.
The Democrat-controlled Senate has passed a bill to funnel penalties from the spill to restoring the Gulf’s ecosystem, but the House Republicans have yet to approve it.
Several recent developments signal the need for more serious steps to bolster offshore drilling safeguards, the report said. In the past 10 months, “at least three offshore oil and gas rigs around the world have experienced significant leaks, demonstrating again and again how risky this activity is,” the report said. “Risks will only increase as drilling moves into deeper waters with harsher, less familiar environmental conditions.”
Some senior administration and congressional staffers complained that the report used simple letter grades to sum up complicated efforts. But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar echoed the criticisms of Congress in the report card.
“Two years after the Deepwater Horizon, it’s inexcusable that the Congress has not done more to help us make sure that the energy security of the United States is protected in a way that will ensure that we will continue to develop our oil and gas resources in a safe and responsible way,” Salazar said.
The report, “Assessing Progress,” credited the administration for reorganizing the federal agency that oversees offshore energy into two separate entities in order to eliminate conflicts of interest and strengthen environmental reviews. The report highlighted industry’s creation of two new consortia to respond to and contain spills. But it also warned that the necessary equipment may be far from the site. It also noted that an independent government auditor concluded recently that there is “limited assurance of an operator’s ability to respond to a sub-sea blowout.”
