December 08, 2011 - When Michael Bromwich took over the helm of the agency overseeing offshore drilling 17 months ago, oil was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, and a handful of ethical lapses had shattered public confidence in the ability of federal regulators to police the industry.

Now, Bromwich is leaving the Interior Department after leading a major overhaul of the government's offshore drilling oversight programs and imposing a swath of new regulations designed to improve the safety of coastal oil and gas exploration.

But he is not confident that all of the changes imposed since last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster will stick."People have short memories," Bromwich said. "We have done everything we possibly can to institutionalize these reforms (and) to create new substantive rules. But there are a lot of people who have amnesia, who make believe that Deepwater Horizon never happened or (think) it was a total anomaly."

Bromwich warns that major challenges remain for the offshore drilling industry and the regulators who monitor it, especially as federal agencies struggle to compete with oil companies to recruit top-notch petroleum engineers. Some industry leaders and their allies in Congress also are pushing to roll back new regulations imposed since last year's oil spill.

Bromwich also is campaigning for extra dollars for the two federal bureaus that were created to replace the former Minerals Management Service.

"This agency for 28 years fought a losing battle for resources," he said. "We have now started to make up for lost ground over the last year and a half," but possible across-the-board budget cuts and planned congressional spending "make me quite concerned about whether the agency will have the resources and tools it needs to do the job that the public expects it to do."

Bromwich formally stepped down as head of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Thursday, but he will serve as a special adviser to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar through the end of the year.

His successor is retired Coast Guard Rear Adm. James Watson, who led the government's response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster after June last year.

Bromwich became a lightning rod for criticism from industry leaders and some lawmakers, who said the government's approval rate of offshore drilling projects slowed unnecessarily under his watch.

source: articles.sfgate.com