Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, April 17, 2013

While Congress has taken steps to ensure billions of dollars is spent to restore the Gulf of Mexico, it has failed to implement other key proposals to prevent another offshore spill, according to a new report from the former members of President Obama’s BP PLC oil spill commission.

And while the Obama administration and industry have taken laudable steps to better prevent and respond to oil spills, the Interior Department is implementing reforms more slowly than in the previous year and an industry-run safety institute is still too closely aligned with its main trade group, the report said.

The administration received a grade of B, industry a B- and Congress a D+.

The second annual report card by the seven members of Oil Spill Commission Action, an offshoot of the former commission, offered slightly better marks for the offshore drilling industry, which it credited for largely avoiding major spills in 2012, and Congress for passing the RESTORE Act. The administration’s grade was unchanged, in part because it released only one of three rules — the safety and environmental management rule — it had planned to introduce in 2012.

“Because of actions taken by the administration and by industry, we can say with confidence that offshore drilling is safer than it was three years ago,” said Bob Graham, the former Democratic senator from Florida and co-chairman of the commission. “That doesn’t mean that there will not be another incident; this is a risky business.”

But Graham noted “major concern” that Congress has yet to raise the oil spill liability cap, and the report said lawmakers have “yet to take action to bolster the government’s program for managing offshore activities.”

In contrast, industry has taken significant steps to ensure the Gulf and other waters are equipped with technologies to quickly arrest an out-of-control well, said William Reilly, the commission’s other co- chairman, who was administrator of U.S. EPA under the George H.W. Bush administration.

“Not only is drilling safer, but the ability to respond effectively to spills that do occur has been significantly improved,” he said. “There are now four well capping systems located in the Gulf of Mexico and more than a dozen are positioned around the world. Three years ago there were none. Industry has taken to heart the lessons of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”

But the report does raise concern that the Center for Offshore Safety, which was established to train auditors to inspect companies’ safety systems, is still being run by the American Petroleum Institute. It recommends the center become independent.

As for the administration, the report notes that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement had expected to release a proposed rule to bolster design and operation standards for blowout preventers and another that would address “process safety systems” and lifetime analyses of critical equipment, but that a release date is uncertain.

It recommended the United States adopt a “proactive, risked-based approach” similar to the United Kingdom’s “safety case” and propose regulations strengthening the quality of the National Environmental Policy Act reviews for planning, leasing, exploration and development.

It said the agency should also move forward with Arctic-specific standards to ensure that drilling is conducted safely in frontier regions.

“The risks will only increase as drilling moves into deeper waters with harsher, less familiar conditions,” the report said. “Delays in taking the necessary precautions threaten new disasters, and their occurrence could, in turn, seriously threaten the nation’s energy security.”

The report gave the administration’s approach to drilling in the Arctic a C grade, calling it a “work in progress” but noting troubles last year in exploring the Chukchi Sea.

Special thanks to Richard Charter