Salazar announces onshore drilling reforms

WASHINGTON — Ahead of anticipated tough questioning on Capitol Hill about the Gulf Coast spill, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday the government will tighten requirements for onshore oil and gas drilling. The new measures would not apply to oil rigs at sea.

Salazar was expected to testify Tuesday at two Senate oversight hearings investigating the BP oil spill off Louisiana's coast. Last week, President Barack Obama said responsibility for what he described as a badly failed system extended to the federal government and its "cozy" relationship with oil companies.

Salazar, whose department includes the federal Minerals Management Service, which manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources, portrayed the changes at the Bureau of Land Management as a response to the BP oil spill, even though they apply only to onshore drilling for oil and natural gas.

"The BP oil spill is a stark reminder of how we must continue to push ahead with the reforms we have been working on and which we know are needed," Salazar said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, meanwhile, was expected to defend the government's response to the Gulf Coast spill in the Obama administration's first congressional testimony on the incident.

BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay was also expected to testify Monday. McKay and executives from other companies involved in the operation of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig were on Capitol Hill last week.

Obama last week called their testimony a "ridiculous spectacle" of shifting blame for the deadly incident.

Salazar said the reforms announced Monday will ensure that the land management bureau will seek public comments before pursuing oil and gas leases in new areas, and that federal officials visit a potential drilling site before any leases are approved.

The government also will tighten requirements for when an approval process known as a "categorical exclusion" is offered on federal lands, he said. Those exclusions allow for expedited oil and gas drilling without detailed environmental reviews that normally are required. The Government Accountability Office has found that the land management bureau has frequently misinterpreted and violated a federal law allowing categorical exclusions.

Obama said last week that the administration would review whether the Minerals Management Service — another Interior Department agency — is following all environmental laws before issuing permits for offshore oil and gas development. BP's drilling operation at Deepwater Horizon received a "categorical exclusion" that exempted from normal environmental reviews.

"It seems as if permits were too often issued based on little more than assurances of safety from the oil companies," Obama said Friday.

Salazar, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, announced the onshore reforms in January, but said Monday's announcement would direct federal land managers how to carry out the reforms.