Minerals Management Service
Encyclopedia
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS), was an agency of the United States Department of the Interior
that managed the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf
(OCS). The Offshore program, which manages the mineral resources on the OCS, is divided into three regions: Alaska
, Gulf of Mexico
, and the Pacific Ocean
.
Effective October 1, 2011, the duties of BOEMRE were split between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
.
Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Agency received most of its revenue from leasing federal lands
and waters to oil and natural gas companies with a profit margin of 98%. It was among the top-five largest revenue sources to the federal government, the IRS being number-one. As the MMS (before transition to BOEMRE), the Agency's signature feature according to an informational trifold was that it had "become our Nation’s leader in offshore energy development and the collection of royalties on behalf of the American Public." With respect to enforcement of regulations and safety, this same publication indicated that the "MMS also funds advanced scientific studies and enforces the highest safety and environmental standards." The Agency's mission statement
was put more formally in its 2010 Budget Proposal:
The Secretary of the Interior at the time, James G. Watt
, designated MMS as the administrative agency responsible for execution of activities under the Act.
With the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
, MMS was given authority to develop renewable energy projects such as wave, wind and current energy on the Outer Continental Shelf. As of 2010, the Agency was composed of two operating units, the MRM and OEMM.
The Agency's offshore renewable energy program included development of renewable energy such as wind, wave, and solar.
Since its inception in 1982 through FY2008, the Agency had disbursed approximately $200 billion to Federal, state, and American Indian accounts.
On June 21, 2010, the Minerals Management Service was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and reorganized.
In 2003, the General Accounting Office (GAO) noted that the MMS had failed to develop "clear strategic objectives linked to statutory requirements nor collected the necessary information to effectively monitor and evaluate the Royalty-in-Kind Program". From 2003 to 2008, the GAO consistently challenged the legitimacy of the statistics published by the MMS that it used to support its claims that the RIK program was a success and justify its expansion. Deficits in accounting practices, policies and procedures, and information systems used by the MMS led to concerns that the industry was significantly underpaying on their royalty obligations. Computer systems in use by the Agency were considered to be sufficiently inadequate that a failure to report revenue or provide RIK by an industry member could not be reliably detected. For instance, the GAO estimated that underpayments amounted to ~$160 million USD in 2006. The GAO also disputed the practice of tracking oil and gas RIK deliveries on a monthly rather than daily basis, a practice used by the MMS and supported by the Department of the Interior, but potentially prone to abuse by producers. Other contributing factors to the placing the accuracy of revenue streams at risk were insufficiently trained personnel and insufficient numbers of personnel working in the RIK program and a lack of standard reporting method by industry members, leading to manual rather than computer-based processing of more than half of the data required for RIK data inputs.
Citing its scandals and the persistent incapacity of the RIK program to fulfill its statutory obligations, Interior Secretary Salazar announced in September 2009 that the RIK program would be shut down. Due to existing lease contracts with RIK provisions, the program as of 2010 is still winding down. On October 7, 2009, the U.S. House Oversight Committee reported the loss of billions in revenue resulting from MMS mismanagement and cozy relationships with industry officials. According to Darrell Issa
, the top Republican on the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, there may be a conflict of interest for the Minerals Management Service to collect revenue and also oversee safety.
A May 2010 inspector general investigation revealed that MMS regulators in the Gulf region had allowed industry officials to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency. MMS staff had routinely accepted meals, tickets to sporting events, and gifts from oil companies. Staffers also used government computers to view pornography. In 2009 the regional supervisor of the Gulf region for MMS pled guilty and was sentenced to a year's probation in federal court for lying about receiving gifts from an offshore drilling contractor. "This deeply disturbing report is further evidence of the cozy relationship between MMS and the oil and gas industry," Salazar said.
The Project On Government Oversight
(POGO) alleges that MMS has suffered from a systemic revolving door
problem between the Department of Interior and the oil and gas industries. For example, thirteen months after departing as MMS director, Bush appointee Randall Luthi
became president of the National Oceans Industries Association (NOIA) whose mission is to "to secure reliable access and a favorable regulatory and economic environment for the companies that develop the nation's valuable offshore energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner." Luthi succeeded Tom Fry, who was MMS director under the Clinton administration. Luthi and Fry represented precisely the industries their agency was tasked with being a watchdog over. Lower level administrators influencing MMS have also gone on to work for the companies they once regulated: In addition, Jimmy Mayberry served as Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Minerals Revenue Management (MRM), managed by MMS, from 2000 to January 2003. After he left, he created an energy consulting company that was awarded an MMS contract via a rigged bid. He was convicted along with a former MMS coworker Milton Dial who also came to work at the company. Both were found guilty of felony violation of conflict of interest law.
, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
announced that MMS would be restructured so that the safety and environmental functions are carried out by a unit with full independence from MMS in order to ensure that federal inspectors will have more tools, resources, and greater authority to enforce laws and regulations that apply to oil and gas companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf. Another outcome of the spill was the retirement of the associate director for offshore energy and minerals management at the time of the spill, Chris Oynes
.
MMS's regulatory decisions contributing to the 2010 oil spill included, in negligence, the decision that an acoustically-controlled shut-off valve (BOP
) would not be required as a last resort against underwater spills at the site, MMS's failure to suggest other “fail-safe” mechanisms after a 2004 report raised questions about the reliability of the electrical remote-control devices., and the fact that MMS gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from the (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
that assess threats to endangered species and to assess the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.
On May 19, 2010 Salazar announced that MMS will be broken up into three separate divisions, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, which will separately oversee energy leasing, safety enforcement, and revenue collection.
S. Elizabeth (Liz) Birnbaum served as the Director of the then named Minerals Management Service from July 15, 2009 to her resignation on May 27, 2010 amidst the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
. On June 15, 2010 President Obama named Michael R. Bromwich
, a former federal prosecutor and inspector general
for the Justice Department, to head up efforts to restructure BOEMRE. Bob Abbey, then director of the Bureau of Land Management, took over as Acting Director of BOEMRE until his replacement could be confirmed. Amidst efforts to reorganize the bleagured agency, on June 21, 2010, Bromwich was sworn in as BOEMRE's new director, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a Secretarial Order that renamed the Minerals Management Service the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Almost a year later, William K. Reilly
, who co-chaired the commission charged with investigating the Horizon blowout, was quoted as saying "they changed the name, but all the people are the same" and "it’s embarrassing" in reference to the current situation.
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
that managed the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf
Outer Continental Shelf
The Outer Continental Shelf is a peculiarity of the political geography of the United States and is the part of the internationally recognized continental shelf of the United States which does not fall under the jurisdictions of the individual U.S...
(OCS). The Offshore program, which manages the mineral resources on the OCS, is divided into three regions: Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, and the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
.
Effective October 1, 2011, the duties of BOEMRE were split between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is an agency under the United States Department of the Interior, established by Secretarial Order. The agency exercises the oil, gas, and renewable energy-related management functions formerly under the Minerals Management Service, including activities...
and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is an agency under the United States Department of the Interior, established by Secretarial Order...
.
Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Agency received most of its revenue from leasing federal lands
Federal lands
Federal lands are lands in the United States for which ownership is claimed by the U.S. federal government.-Primary federal land holders:*Bureau of Land Management*United States Forest Service*United States Fish and Wildlife Service*National Park Service...
and waters to oil and natural gas companies with a profit margin of 98%. It was among the top-five largest revenue sources to the federal government, the IRS being number-one. As the MMS (before transition to BOEMRE), the Agency's signature feature according to an informational trifold was that it had "become our Nation’s leader in offshore energy development and the collection of royalties on behalf of the American Public." With respect to enforcement of regulations and safety, this same publication indicated that the "MMS also funds advanced scientific studies and enforces the highest safety and environmental standards." The Agency's mission statement
Mission statement
A mission statement is a statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making...
was put more formally in its 2010 Budget Proposal:
History
The Minerals Management Service was created on January 19, 1982. In January 1983, Congress passed the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act with the stated purpose:The Secretary of the Interior at the time, James G. Watt
James G. Watt
James Gaius Watt served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior for President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1983.-Early life and career:...
, designated MMS as the administrative agency responsible for execution of activities under the Act.
With the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Energy Policy Act of 2005
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a bill passed by the United States Congress on July 29, 2005, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico...
, MMS was given authority to develop renewable energy projects such as wave, wind and current energy on the Outer Continental Shelf. As of 2010, the Agency was composed of two operating units, the MRM and OEMM.
- Offshore Energy and Minerals Management (OEMM) — Under the guidance of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the OEMM managed energy and mineral development in over 1.71 billion offshore acres of the Outer Continental ShelfOuter Continental ShelfThe Outer Continental Shelf is a peculiarity of the political geography of the United States and is the part of the internationally recognized continental shelf of the United States which does not fall under the jurisdictions of the individual U.S...
(OCS) and annually disburses to the U.S. Treasury an average of $13 billion in minerals revenue.ibid - Minerals Revenue Management (MRM) — Through the MRM program, the Agency collected, accounted for, and disbursed mineral revenues from Federal and American Indian leases.ibid
The Agency's offshore renewable energy program included development of renewable energy such as wind, wave, and solar.
Since its inception in 1982 through FY2008, the Agency had disbursed approximately $200 billion to Federal, state, and American Indian accounts.
On June 21, 2010, the Minerals Management Service was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement and reorganized.
Operations
As of 2009, the Agency employed about 1,600 people, which was proposed to grow by less than one hundred in 2010.Organization
The BOEMRE was reorganized in May 2010 under the direction of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The bureau is organized into these three newly created agencies:- Bureau of Ocean Energy ManagementBureau of Ocean Energy ManagementThe Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is an agency under the United States Department of the Interior, established by Secretarial Order. The agency exercises the oil, gas, and renewable energy-related management functions formerly under the Minerals Management Service, including activities...
— Responsible for leasing areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for conventional and renewable energy resources.
- Bureau of Safety and Environmental EnforcementBureau of Safety and Environmental EnforcementThe Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is an agency under the United States Department of the Interior, established by Secretarial Order...
— Responsible for ensuring comprehensive oversight, safety, and environmental protection in all offshore energy activities.
- Office of Natural Resources RevenueOffice of Natural Resources RevenueThe Office of Natural Resources Revenue is a unit of the United States Department of the Interior, established by Secretarial Order. The new office exercises the royalty and revenue management functions formerly under the Minerals Management Service, including royalty and revenue collection,...
— Responsible for royalty and revenue management, including collection and distribution of revenue, auditing and compliance, and asset management.
Criticism and controversies
Since the inception of the MMS, and in particular since the 1990s, the Agency has been embroiled or implicated in numerous scandals. For example, in 1990 MMS employees were linked to prostitution, and in 2008 the Department of Interior's Inspector General reported that MMS employees had participated in drug use and sexual activity with employees from the very energy firms they were to be regulating.Collection of oil and gas royalties
From the 1950s to at least 2002, drilling for oil and gas on federal lands and waters produced the second largest source of revenue for the federal government other than taxes. The Minerals Revenue Management (MRM) division of MSM was responsible for managing all royalties associated with both onshore and offshore oil and gas production from federal mineral leases. In 1997, in light of evidence that industry was getting around royalty regulations and underpaying royalties to the tune of billions of dollars, MMS proposed a more stringent rule to collect royalty payments in value (RIV), meaning in the form of cash payments from companies producing from federal leases. In response to that rule-making, industry proposed an alternative — "royalty-in-kind" (RIK) meaning in the form of actual oil or gas production. In fact, the industry opposed cash payments (RIV) and planned legal challenges to government efforts to establish regulations for fair market-based royalty payments. A pilot test of the RIK concept was conducted. The Bush administration allowed the pilot to expand to a full program, with industry support, even though the bill authorizing the program failed to pass in Congress. In FY2008, the RIK program accounted for more than 50% of the Agency's revenue collections. When MRM collected royalties-in-kind, the oil or gas received from producers was offered for sale by the U.S. Government on the open market and the proceeds from these sales were taken as revenues. The RIK program within MRM was responsible for managing these in-kind sales.In 2003, the General Accounting Office (GAO) noted that the MMS had failed to develop "clear strategic objectives linked to statutory requirements nor collected the necessary information to effectively monitor and evaluate the Royalty-in-Kind Program". From 2003 to 2008, the GAO consistently challenged the legitimacy of the statistics published by the MMS that it used to support its claims that the RIK program was a success and justify its expansion. Deficits in accounting practices, policies and procedures, and information systems used by the MMS led to concerns that the industry was significantly underpaying on their royalty obligations. Computer systems in use by the Agency were considered to be sufficiently inadequate that a failure to report revenue or provide RIK by an industry member could not be reliably detected. For instance, the GAO estimated that underpayments amounted to ~$160 million USD in 2006. The GAO also disputed the practice of tracking oil and gas RIK deliveries on a monthly rather than daily basis, a practice used by the MMS and supported by the Department of the Interior, but potentially prone to abuse by producers. Other contributing factors to the placing the accuracy of revenue streams at risk were insufficiently trained personnel and insufficient numbers of personnel working in the RIK program and a lack of standard reporting method by industry members, leading to manual rather than computer-based processing of more than half of the data required for RIK data inputs.
Citing its scandals and the persistent incapacity of the RIK program to fulfill its statutory obligations, Interior Secretary Salazar announced in September 2009 that the RIK program would be shut down. Due to existing lease contracts with RIK provisions, the program as of 2010 is still winding down. On October 7, 2009, the U.S. House Oversight Committee reported the loss of billions in revenue resulting from MMS mismanagement and cozy relationships with industry officials. According to Darrell Issa
Darrell Issa
Darrell Edward Issa is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 48th, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was formerly a CEO of Directed Electronics, the Vista, California-based manufacturer of automobile security and convenience products...
, the top Republican on the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, there may be a conflict of interest for the Minerals Management Service to collect revenue and also oversee safety.
Gifts, gratuities and the revolving door
In September 2008, reports by the Inspector General of the Interior Department, Earl E. Devaney, were released that implicated over a dozen officials of the MMS of unethical and criminal conduct in the performance of their duties. The investigation found MMS employees had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sex with energy company representatives. MMS staff had also accepted gifts and free holidays amid "a culture of ethical failure", according to the investigation. The New York Times's summary states the investigation revealed "a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch."A May 2010 inspector general investigation revealed that MMS regulators in the Gulf region had allowed industry officials to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency. MMS staff had routinely accepted meals, tickets to sporting events, and gifts from oil companies. Staffers also used government computers to view pornography. In 2009 the regional supervisor of the Gulf region for MMS pled guilty and was sentenced to a year's probation in federal court for lying about receiving gifts from an offshore drilling contractor. "This deeply disturbing report is further evidence of the cozy relationship between MMS and the oil and gas industry," Salazar said.
The Project On Government Oversight
Project on Government Oversight
The Project On Government Oversight , founded in 1981, is an independent non-profit organization in the United States which investigates and seeks to expose corruption and other misconduct. POGO assists whistleblowers and investigates federal agencies, Congress, and government contractors...
(POGO) alleges that MMS has suffered from a systemic revolving door
Revolving door (politics)
The revolving door is the movement of personnel between roles as legislators and regulators and the industries affected by the legislation and regulation and on within lobbying companies. In some cases the roles are performed in sequence but in certain circumstances may be performed at the same time...
problem between the Department of Interior and the oil and gas industries. For example, thirteen months after departing as MMS director, Bush appointee Randall Luthi
Randall Luthi
Randall B. Luthi is an attorney and rancher from Freedom, in northwestern Lincoln County in western Wyoming, who served as a Republican in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1995—2007. He was the Speaker for his last two-year term, 2005—2007. Prior to 2005, he had been the House...
became president of the National Oceans Industries Association (NOIA) whose mission is to "to secure reliable access and a favorable regulatory and economic environment for the companies that develop the nation's valuable offshore energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner." Luthi succeeded Tom Fry, who was MMS director under the Clinton administration. Luthi and Fry represented precisely the industries their agency was tasked with being a watchdog over. Lower level administrators influencing MMS have also gone on to work for the companies they once regulated: In addition, Jimmy Mayberry served as Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Minerals Revenue Management (MRM), managed by MMS, from 2000 to January 2003. After he left, he created an energy consulting company that was awarded an MMS contract via a rigged bid. He was convicted along with a former MMS coworker Milton Dial who also came to work at the company. Both were found guilty of felony violation of conflict of interest law.
Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and restructuring
On May 11, 2010, in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spillDeepwater Horizon oil spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and continues to leak fresh oil. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry...
, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
Ken Salazar
Kenneth Lee "Ken" Salazar is the current United States Secretary of the Interior, in the administration of President Barack Obama. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a United States Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009. He and Mel Martinez were the first Hispanic U.S...
announced that MMS would be restructured so that the safety and environmental functions are carried out by a unit with full independence from MMS in order to ensure that federal inspectors will have more tools, resources, and greater authority to enforce laws and regulations that apply to oil and gas companies operating on the Outer Continental Shelf. Another outcome of the spill was the retirement of the associate director for offshore energy and minerals management at the time of the spill, Chris Oynes
Chris Oynes
Chris Oynes served as U.S. Minerals Management Service associate director for offshore energy and minerals management before he retired in May 2010...
.
MMS's regulatory decisions contributing to the 2010 oil spill included, in negligence, the decision that an acoustically-controlled shut-off valve (BOP
Blowout preventer
A blowout preventer is a large, specialized valve used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells. Blowout preventers were developed to cope with extreme erratic pressures and uncontrolled flow emanating from a well reservoir during drilling. Kicks can lead to a potentially catastrophic...
) would not be required as a last resort against underwater spills at the site, MMS's failure to suggest other “fail-safe” mechanisms after a 2004 report raised questions about the reliability of the electrical remote-control devices., and the fact that MMS gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from the (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
that assess threats to endangered species and to assess the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf.
On May 19, 2010 Salazar announced that MMS will be broken up into three separate divisions, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, which will separately oversee energy leasing, safety enforcement, and revenue collection.
S. Elizabeth (Liz) Birnbaum served as the Director of the then named Minerals Management Service from July 15, 2009 to her resignation on May 27, 2010 amidst the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and continues to leak fresh oil. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry...
. On June 15, 2010 President Obama named Michael R. Bromwich
Michael R. Bromwich
Michael R. Bromwich is a litigation attorney who was designated by Barack Obama on June 15, 2010, to be the first director of the newly created Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which replaces the Minerals Management Service in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil...
, a former federal prosecutor and inspector general
Inspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
for the Justice Department, to head up efforts to restructure BOEMRE. Bob Abbey, then director of the Bureau of Land Management, took over as Acting Director of BOEMRE until his replacement could be confirmed. Amidst efforts to reorganize the bleagured agency, on June 21, 2010, Bromwich was sworn in as BOEMRE's new director, and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued a Secretarial Order that renamed the Minerals Management Service the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Almost a year later, William K. Reilly
William K. Reilly
William K. Reilly was Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H. W. Bush. He has served as president of World Wildlife Fund, as a founder or advisor to several business ventures, and on many boards of directors...
, who co-chaired the commission charged with investigating the Horizon blowout, was quoted as saying "they changed the name, but all the people are the same" and "it’s embarrassing" in reference to the current situation.
See also
- Regulatory CaptureRegulatory captureIn economics, regulatory capture occurs when a state regulatory agency created to act in the public interest instead advances the commercial or special interests that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating. Regulatory capture is a form of government failure, as it can act as...
- Center for Biological DiversityCenter for Biological DiversityThe Center for Biological Diversity based in Tucson, Arizona, is a nonprofit membership organization with approximately 220,000 members and online activists, known for its work protecting endangered species through legal action and scientific petitions...
- Deep Water Royalty Relief ActDeep Water Royalty Relief ActThe United States Deep Water Royalty Relief Act implemented a royalty-relief program that relieves eligible leases from paying royalties on defined amounts of deep-water petroleum production over Federal Outer Continental Shelf lands. After its expiration in 2000, the DWRRA was redefined and...
- Endangered Species ActEndangered Species ActThe Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...
- Marine Mammal Protection ActMarine Mammal Protection ActThe Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 was the first article of legislation to call specifically for an ecosystem approach to natural resource management and conservation. MMPA prohibits the taking of marine mammals, and enacts a moratorium on the import, export, and sale of any marine mammal,...
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNational Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
- Offshore oil and gas in the United StatesOffshore oil and gas in the United StatesOffshore oil and gas in the United States provides a large portion of the nation’s oil and gas supply. Large oil and gas reservoirs are found in the sea nearby Louisiana, Texas, California, and Alaska...
- Worst Case DischargeWorst Case DischargeWorst Case Discharge is a calculation used by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement to determine the maximum flow rate for an offshore oil well in the event of an oil spill...