The chance to comment is here...

Actually, the chance to comment has probably BEEN here, I'm just becoming aware of it.

For those who have something to say to the new "Bureau of Ocean Energy Management" regarding rules and regulation enforcement for offshore drilling, proposed changes to the rules and regulations, new rules and regulations, enforcement of old rules and regulations, enforcement of proposed rules and regulations and enforcement of rules and regulations we haven't imagined yet, you may go to the BOEM website here:

http://www.boemre.gov/

and click on the highlighted word "online" down the page a bit.  Alternatively, this link will take you DIRECTLY to the comment page:

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480b248d2

where you can enter all of your pertinent information and your comments and have them submitted as an official part of the Federal Register.  Comments are due no later than September 17th at 2359 hours to be included on the docket.

From Wikipedia/Department of the Interior-MMS

This is all a follow-up to the Horizon Incident and is being headed up by Michael Bromwich, the newly appointed head of the newly formed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which replaces the old Minerals Management Service with not one, but TWO new bureaucracies--one which charges operators to drill and the other which makes it impossible for them to drill.  Two bureaucracies are obviously better than one, almost in the same vein that two wrongs quite possibly equal a right.

This gem appeared on 2TheAdvocate.com for all of about 5 minutes on September 10th:

Feds: Drilling Moratorium Depends on Industry

Really?  Well...why are we still shutdown and why the "shadow moratorium" on "shelf" drilling?  It was only up there long enough for me to comment it on it, then disappeared into The Advocate ether, but my comments were as follows:

Uh, already comply with current. No way to comply with "soon-to-be" since no one has bothered to tell anyone what they are. 


We'd like to say that Bromwich is an "agenda" appointee, but his pedigree points to something different. Certainly, if his newly formed Bureau of Ocean Energy Management would publish some "new" rules and regulations, the industry would aptly follow--as the industry has the rules and regs put forth by the MMS. The questions are--are they necessary and can we afford them. We'll see if Bromwich's apparent lack of bias holds true, or if he's just another East Coast, Harvard-trained elitist with an agenda.


To his credit, Bromwich is known as something of an honest broker in governmental circles (oxymoron-ish description, for sure), but we'll see what happens.  Seriously--all the necessary rules and regulations are in place, with compliance being pretty much at the top of each operator's priority list.  How the new organization pursues enforcement would make FAR more difference than inane notions like double blowout preventer stacks.


We'll see.  In the meantime (you know, after the LSU game--and, after you sober up) go to the BOEMRE website and offer some intelligent commentary for the newly uninformed in Washington.