Shrunken Offshore Energy Regulator Faces an Outsize Challenge

Energy policy attorney Jim Noe was quoted in POLITICO's E&E News on the U.S. Department of the Interior's decision to merge the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) into the new Marine Minerals Administration (MMA). The two agencies were created in 2011 following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, when the Obama Administration closed the Minerals Management Service and formed the new entities. Mr. Noe said talk of reunifying BOEM and BSEE has been ongoing ever since. He added that the move now stems not from oil industry pressure but rather represents a long-discussed effort to improve efficiency in how the federal government oversees offshore mineral development in U.S. waters.

"This is not some sort of sneaky backroom issue [or] Big Oil push onto a mid-level political staffer at Interior," he said. "It's just been floating around in the ether ever since it happened in 2011."

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