Interior official who oversees offshore drilling for MMS resigns

[kpete]

Source: Washington Post

Interior official who oversees offshore drilling for MMS resigns

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 17, 2010; 2:18 PM

The top Interior Department official who oversees offshore oil and gas drilling for the Minerals Management Service will retire on May 31, The Washington Post has learned.

Chris Oynes, who oversaw oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico for 12 years before being promoted in 2007 to associate director for offshore energy and minerals management, informed colleagues in an e-mail that he will step down. He has come under fire from former MMS officials for being too close to the industryhe regulated.

The news came as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled a series of reforms to change the way the department conducts onshore oil and gas drilling.

He said in they would "establish a more orderly, open, and environmentally sound process for developing oil and gas resources on public lands. 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.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/17/AR2010051702123.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. He is retiring, not being fired.

Means he gets all his benefits, etc.

Shoulda been shot.

[Tempest]

2. It's things like this where China has it right

Oynes would have been sentenced to death for his actions.

[damntexdem]

3. Leaving the Department of the Inferior.

No longer with the Minerals Manglement Stupidness.

Oh, OK.

[formercia]

4. Soon to be on the BP payroll

after he signs a non-disclosure agreement.

[CLANG]

5. Get your ass back here, Buck... you've got some 'splainin' to do!

[Cant trust em]

6. Senior Oil Regulator at MMS to Retire

Source: Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—The top federal official who led regulation of offshore oil drilling at the Minerals Management Service will retire at the end of the month, according to people familiar with the situation.

The departure of Chris Oynes, associate director for offshore energy and minerals management at the MMS, comes as the agency faces growing criticism from Congress and the White House following last month's deadly explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

The accident, which led to the deaths of 11 workers and one of the worst offshore oil spills in the U.S. in decades, is the subject of half a dozen congressional hearings this week, including two on Tuesday where Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to testify.

Mr. Salazar, whose department oversees the MMS, announced plans last week to reorganize the MMS. His announcement followed a Wall Street Journal article that quoted industry officials and longtime MMS officials as saying the MMS has shifted much of the job of crafting safety regulations to the oil industry itself.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703315404575250783606859728.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

---

Looks like someone's going to be spending some more time with his family.

[catzies]

7. Was he a political appointee, or a career bureaucrat? How long was he there?

Can't read the WSJ article.

[Cant trust em]

8. Career bureaucrat. Article says 35 years.

Dang WSJ won't let us share their online content for free.

I got it from Google News, but looks like they took the link down.

[roseBudd]

11. Looks like Oily Oynes is a Texas man, his Powerpoints

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/whatsnew/speeches/speeches.html

This one is from 2001

http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/whatsnew/speeches/OTC2001.pdf

[catzies]

12. Very helpful, thank you!

:hi:

[roseBudd]

9. Yes please WSJ subscribers, is he a Bush era appointee? I remember the deep burrow...

article about Bush admin people burrowing into jobs before Obama took office

[bbgrunt]

10. why wasn't the whole department cleaned out after the sex/drug scandal?

[Earth_First]

13. Why not? There's 100x the salary to make as the industry lobbyist...

toolbag.