Minerals Management Service
The Minerals Management Service was an agency of the US Department of the Interior from 1982 to 2011 , which administered the national mineral resources (gas, oil and other raw materials) on the continental shelf of the United States. It also settled the license income for the extraction of mineral resources on land for areas that are either federally owned or on Indian reservations. The authority was based in Washington, DC
In October 2011, following a split due to a conflict of interest, the Minerals Management Service created three new agencies: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management , Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Office of Natural Resources Revenue .
activities
Among other things, the authority was responsible for issuing licenses for the exploitation of offshore oil and gas fields. It prescribed the conditions of exploitation and monitored compliance with environmental regulations. For federally owned land, the licenses were issued by the Bureau of Land Management , for the Indian reservations by the Indian peoples within the framework of self-government under the legal supervision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs . There the MMS was only responsible for billing. The variety of different tasks led to allegations of conflicts of interest.
In the 2010 budget year, the agency received from its own budget of $ 440 million, according to its own information, $ 13.7 billion for the rights of use of federally owned land (offshore and onshore) and the property of the Native Americans.
Criticism and division
For decades, critics accused the agency of working too closely with the energy industry, especially with the oil industry. There have been repeated cases of corruption in which MMS employees have had personal relationships with employees in the oil industry, accepting benefits in cash and in kind. In the context of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, it became known that MMS waived a previously prescribed emergency plan for this platform.
As a result of the Deepwater investigations, it was also found that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement had failed to fulfill its supervisory duties for decades. In addition to the approximately 10,500 active oil wells, there are around 27,000 abandoned oil wells in US territorial waters of the Gulf of Mexico alone . Among them are 3,500 abandoned as temporary ( temporarily abandoned ) registered. A status that, according to the law, is only permitted for a maximum of one year. Since the authority did not conduct any on-site inspections, it only examined written documents but had no procedure to re-submit the final decision on a well. Therefore, there were temporarily abandoned bores that go back to the 1940s. The temporary closures are not designed for these periods of time, and nobody checks their tightness.
As a consequence of the accident on the Deepwater Horizon and the following findings, Ken Salazar , the Secretary of the Interior of the United States , ordered a realignment of responsibilities in May 2010. On June 18, 2010, the name was changed to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement in order to represent the activities in the name. On October 1, 2011, the authority was dissolved and the three independent authorities Bureau of Ocean Energy Management , Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Office of Natural Resources Revenue were established from their departments .
swell
- ↑ mms.gov ( Memento of the original dated November 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on May 7, 2010)
- ↑ Department of the Interior: Secretarial Order Nº 3299 ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , May 19, 2010
- ^ Department of the Interior: FY2012 Appendix A0001
- ↑ No emergency plan, hardly any requirements: The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico illustrates the lack of controls , Deutschlandfunk Umwelt und Konsument dated May 7, 2010
- ↑ CBS: 27,000 Abandoned Gulf Oil Wells May Be Leaking , July 7, 2010 (accessed July 11, 2010)
- ↑ BOEMRE: Salazar Swears-In Michael R. Bromwich to Lead Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement ( Memento of the original of July 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release dated June 21, 2010
