Obama administration has insisted that Gulf drilling is likely to continue near record levels despite a slowdown in permitting
WASHINGTON - Continuing his harsh rhetoric on the Obama administration's regulation of the oil and gas industry, freshman Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., today said some officials were continuing to engage in "half truths."
Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Department of the Interior, testifies before Congress in July, 2010.Once again, his staff issued a press release in advance of the hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee, promising that Landry would be "drilling" the administration's witness, Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulations and Enforcement. It signals that Landry believes his tough questioning is playing well back home with constituents.
But today's questioning drew an unusual, albeit mild, rebuke from Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the committee's chairman.
Hastings put a stop to Landry's follow-up questions on whether Bromwich's view that a shutdown of the government would be irresponsible carries over to the previous House Democratic majority, which failed to pass a budget in 2010.
Bromwich said he wasn't testifying to give his political analysis, and, as Landry tried for a follow-up, Hastings cut him off, saying that members should respect a witness's decision not to answer a question he considers outside the scope of his testimony.
Later, after Democratic Rep. Dale Kildee of Michigan made a request of "personal privilege" to challenge Landry's questioning, Hastings defended him. He said Landry's "passion" is not in doubt because his Louisiana constituents have been "badly affected" by last year's BP oil spill and the slowdown in drilling permits imposed by the Obama administration.
In his earlier questioning, Landry, a lawyer, asked Bromwich if he knew what a "half truth" is and whether he considers such statements to be lies. Landry said he raised the issue about what he considered the administration's insistence that Gulf drilling was likely to continue near record levels despite the slowdown in permitting.
But Bromwich said he has never said that drilling won't be affected by what he considers a justifiable slowdown in permitting, only that last year's and current drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico continue at near historically high levels. Bromwich's agency has recently issued seven deepwater permits, action he said resulted from the industry's development of a containment plan to deal with a future spill comparable in size to last year's BP disaster.
Landry labeled it as "too little, too late."
In his questioning of Bromwich, heavily doused with sarcasm, Landry asked Bromwich, given his "vast experience" of working for the government during the last shutdown in 1995, how much it would cost to continue permitting during a future shutdown. A shutdown could occur as early as a week from Friday, if President Barack Obama and Congress don't agree on a new spending plan.
Bromwich said he didn't know the answer to Landry's question, but noted that all federal agencies would be affected. The last time the government shut down, he said, it stopped all oil and gas permitting and presumed that stoppage would occur again.
In earlier testimony, Bromwich said a recent report by a Norwegian expert citing problems with blowout preventers raised concerns.
Though he suggested the report would not put a stop to permitting additional offshore development, Bromwich said he does not believe the blowout preventers, as currently designed, provide the intended failsafe. He said his department plans to work closely with industry to develop design changes to insure that that work as intended.
Bromwich again called on Congress to increase fees on the oil and gas industry to help fund a substantial increase in inspectors and permitting agents so the pace of awarding permits can quicken.
But asked by several members whether that could increase the pace of permitting to pre- BP levels, Bromwich said he couldn't make a guarantee because regulations have been expanded, meaning regulators need to do far more work before approving an application.
He expressed the view with the price of oil, more than $100 a barrel, means that the modest extra fees proposed by the Obama administration would, not as some Republicans suggested, have any impact on industry's willingness to develop off-shore resources.
Still, Hastings, the House Natural Resources Committee chairman, said that new production "should not be paid for with new taxes."
The panel's top Democrat, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, expressed disappointment that Hastings has yet to schedule a hearing on safety issues associated with oil and gas drilling, including the recent report questioning the effectiveness of blowout preventers.