House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement regarding the further division of the former MMS into the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement:

“There was bipartisan recognition of the need to improve the operations of MMS in order to ensure that U.S. offshore drilling is the safest in the world. However, the division of these agencies must be more than a symbolic name-change. The new Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement must carry out effective oversight of offshore drilling and also ensure that permits for new drilling are issued in a timely manner. With the average price of gasoline steadily rising and an Iranian-controlled OPEC advocating for higher prices, families already struggling to makes ends meet cannot afford to have American energy development slowed down by new layers of bureaucratic red tape.”

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