Hearing of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee - Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement and Office of Natural Resource Revenue

Statement

Today we meet to discuss the FY12 budget for the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement and the Office of Natural Resource Revenue.

The transition of the MMS has been a large and expensive undertaking, but also a necessary undertaking. In light of the numerous problems MMS had with royalties and last summer's BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, I have supported funding increases to better manage our offshore mineral resources and Federal royalties. There's no doubt that we need to improve workplace safety, drilling safety and royalty collection and accountability. It will take a larger staff and more resources to do this.

At the same time, there will be no blank check coming from this Subcommittee. We expect results from appropriated dollars and will continue to rigorously conduct oversight on BOEMRE and ONRR.

Recently, two permits have been issued for off-shore drilling. I understand that it may take some time after the tragedy last summer to review and revise the agency's procedures and actions, but it's been almost a year.

Since then, oil prices have increased dramatically and people in the Gulf have been without good paying jobs in a terrible recession. Purchasing leases and scheduling crews and rigs for development offshore is no easy task and requires a great deal of investment. Worse, because of recent policies, many of the jobs that should have been American have been exported to foreign countries. There needs to be a balance and all of these issues need to be considered-- two permits in almost one year is not going to cut it.

The FY12 budget asks for increases in several areas--many of which I agree.

You ask for additional inspectors--clearly you need them and we support this request. But we also need to ensure we have adequate staff for environmental reviews and permitting. We need certainty that the funding we provide results in inspections, appropriate environmental analysis and permits issued. I commend you for doing this in the renewable energy category--but urge you to also do this in the conventional energy category.

As has been discussed in our GAO and IG hearings several weeks ago, I am very concerned about royalty collections and accountability. I applaud the efforts of this budget to ask for the funding necessary to drastically improve this program. We will be asking for progress updates and how appropriated dollars are being spent on this important issue.

Finally, I want to thank you for being here today. This reorganization has been no easy task and I look forward to working with you on many of these issues and thank you and your staff for their hard work and assistance.

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