GULF OIL DISASTER
Another Nail in the Coffin of Offshore Drilling Safety Reform
"Earmarks were not the only government spending plans that died when Harry Reid pulled the Senate omnibus spending bill this week. So, too, did fees and rule improvements that would have helped the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the revamped agency overseeing offshore drilling safety, fund increased inspections and reviews. The omnibus bill contained $51 million of increased budget to fund inspections of offshore platforms and rigs, as well as increasing the statutory time limit for permit review from 30 to 90 days."
BOEMRE Begins Work on First Geological and Geophysical Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Mid and South Atlantic
Not enough oil left in offshore, deepwater Gulf to warrant additional cleanup, admiral says
"The report concluded that there was still a gap in sampling in near-shore areas evidenced by the continuing discovery of tar mats, and said a group of researchers is now targeting that problem.
Scientists also are awaiting the results of more complex toxicity studies of water and sediment samples that will be the subject of an addendum to the report in early 2011, Zukunft said in a letter accompanying the report."
