Need to clean up’ energy agency, Salazar says

Interior chief testifies Minerals Management Service needs shakeup

Daniel Beltra / Greenpeace via AFP - Getty Images
Greenpeace activists made their point about the spill on Monday along the shore in South Pass, Louisiana.

Tar balls on Key West
May 18: Officials will test if they originated from the BP oil slick swirling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Environment news
BP's haste lays waste to Gulf waters

Rachel Maddow shares reports that BP's pressure on Transocean to skip steps in the drilling process to expedite oil extraction from the well led to the explosion that killed 11 workers and created an ecological catastrophe.
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Oil plumes spark fears of dead zones
Is reliance on BP continuing to hurt the Gulf Coast area?
Does BP need help?
Whistleblower: BP aware of safety problems

Slideshow

Oil spill disaster in the Gulf
Following an explosion that is presumed to have claimed 11 lives, crews attempt to contain an underwater oil well gushing thousands of gallons a day off the Louisiana coast.

Gulf oil spill graphics
How much oil?
How much oil is spilling into the Gulf?
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Interactive: Rig blast aftermath
Timeline: Oil rig explosions in the Gulf of Mexico
Map: Oil spill trajectory

Wildlife threatened by oil
View images of some of the birds and marine life at risk from the oil rig leak.

Field Notes: Gulf oil spill
Shrimpers just want to keep shrimping
Oysterman: 'Oil monster will gulp us up'
BP CEO: We could have done more to prepare
Still waiting for oil to hit land
Long-suffering tribe fears oil may strike final blow
On the coast, a rising tide of suits and briefcases
In Mississippi, a berm of last resort
Bayou town rides the oil spill boom
For oil workers, accidents are 'a risk you take'
Shrimping like there's no tomorrow
msnbc.com news services
updated 1 hour, 31 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Facing pressure from lawmakers and President Barack Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday told senators that the "collective responsibility" to make sure the Gulf oil disaster is never repeated starts with his department, and specifically, the agency that regulates offshore drilling.

"We need to clean up that house," Salazar said, referring to the Minerals Management Service. He testified before the Senate Energy Committee.

Asked if the MMS had properly regulated the blowout preventers like the one that failed on the Deepwater Horizon rig, Salazar said: "No."

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., asked whether both government and industry had become lax since the Gulf had not seen a major well blowout for decades. "I would say, yes," replied Salazar.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was vehement in his criticism of MMS. "It is long past time to drain the safety and environmental swamp that is MMS," he declared. "This agency has been in denial about safety problems for years."

Salazar did deny reports that MMS had approved a number of new oil drilling applications in deep waters of the Gulf since the spill.

"We have hit the pause button," Salazar said. He said no new deep water drilling applications have been approved since April 20, or will be drilled until a safety report is completed on the BP spill.

Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes told the committee that about a dozen applications had been received since April 20.

Salazar last week announced the MMS would be split into two agencies, one that deals with collecting the $15 billion in annual royalty revenue and another that deals with regulating the industry.

Obama himself has cited a "cosy relationship" that MMS had tradionally had with the oil industry.

With a shakeup of MMS imminent, Chris Oynes, the top official overseeing its offshore oil and gas drilling, announced Monday that he would retire at the end of the month.

Obama is expected to announce later Tuesday a presidential commission to probe the MMS as well as industry.

"Whether it's a nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island or an oil blowout one mile deep, appointing an independent review panel is critical to reduce the risks of future accidents," said Edward Markey, chairman of a House of Representatives committee on global warming and energy independence.

The presidential commission will investigate issues related to the spill and its aftermath, including rig safety and regulatory regimes at the local, state and federal levels.

It will also look into the federal government's oversight role and environmental protections.

Fishing shutdown widened

In other developments, the federal area where fishing is shut down because of the spill was widened on Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said nearly 46,000 square miles, or about 19 percent of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, will be shut under the expanded ban.

NOAA had earlier shut down fishing in nearly 10 percent of Gulf of Mexico waters.

The agency said it has been testing fish to make sure it is safe to eat.

An oil loop?

May 18: Current could potentially take oil through the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic coast.

BP, for its part, on Tuesday doubled the estimate of how much oil it was managing to siphon from the leak in the Gulf of Mexico, as it also lifted the total bill for the clean-up to $625 million.

BP said its "quick fix" mile-long siphon tube deployed on the leaking well was now collecting 40 percent of the estimated 5,000 barrels of oil flowing into the sea per day, double the 1,000 barrels it was capturing on Monday.

"I do feel that we have, for the first time, turned the corner in this challenge," BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said in Florida on Monday.

Still, concerns remain. The U.S. Coast Guard said 20 tar balls were found off Florida's Key West, but the agency stopped short of saying whether they came from the massive oil spill.

Roughly five million gallons of crude have spewed into the Gulf and tar balls have been washing ashore in several states along the coast since the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers.

Scientists are now worried that oil is streaming into a major ocean current that could carry it through the Florida Keys and up the East Coast.

Tar balls at Key West

The Coast Guard said the Florida Park Service found the tar balls on Monday during a shoreline survey. The balls were three-to-eight inches in diameter.

Coast Guard Lt. Anna K. Dixon said no one at the station in Key West was qualified to determine where the tar balls originated. They have been sent to a lab for analysis.

The updated cost of the oil spill was $175 million more than reported five days ago and includes the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf Coast states, settlements and federal costs.