Head of Much-Criticized Drilling Oversight Agency Resigns

Elizabeth Birnbaum, head of the embattled federal agency charged with overseeing offshore oil and gas drilling, resigned Thursday in a move many lawmakers applauded.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a House committee that Birnbaum resigned from the Minerals Management Service (MMS) "on her own terms and on her own volition."
MMS has been blamed for weak oversight of offshore drilling that may have been a factor in the April 20 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident killed 11 workers and ripped open a well that has dumped millions of gallons of crude oil into the gulf.
Salazar noted that highly publicized problems with MMS -- including allegations that agency officials took gifts and favors from employees of the oil companies they were supposed to be regulating --predated Birnbaum, who only joined the agency last summer. But even some lawmakers who agreed Birnbaum was not responsible for the problems at MMS saw the resignation as a positive step.
"It's time for Salazar to clean house at MMS, and so it appears that that is what he's doing," said Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a leading opponent of offshore drilling.
Salazar announced earlier this month that he will split the agency in three, separating the offices that regulate safety and environmental protections; collect leases; and oversee drilling.
Some lawmakers said Salazar needs to go further and eliminate MMS completely.
"I think we need to clean out that house," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., wrote in a letter to Salazar. "It is time to abolish MMS and start anew with a new agency and new people. A culture of incompetence and corruption will still exist at the agency unless broad scale personnel changes accompany that reorganization."

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