In the wake of the worst oil spill disaster in the country's history, the Obama administration has begun to restructure the federal agency charged with the development of energy resources and oversight of the oil and gas industry. Critics argue the changes do not go far enough.

On May 19, Department of Interior (DOI) secretary Ken Salazar issued a formal order restructuring the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS). MMS is the agency that both collects revenues from extraction industries such as oil and gas companies and oversees safety and environmental processes of these same industries.

MMS came under fire after BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, killing eleven workers and causing the largest oil spill in U.S. history, according to both government and independent estimates. The Offshore Energy and Minerals Management program oversees resources management on the Outer Continental Shelf, which includes the Gulf of Mexico. The program has been widely cited since the explosion as having given cursory review of and exemptions from filing safety and environmental quality plans submitted by oil and gas companies it regulates.

Salazar's order divides MMS into three separate offices to make the functions of MMS independent of each other. First, the order creates the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to exercise the traditional energy management tasks associated with developing both renewable and oil and gas resources. Second, the order establishes the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to "inspect, investigate, summon witnesses and produce evidence, levy penalties, cancel or suspend activities, and oversee safety, response, and removal preparedness."

These two offices will be led by directors and report to the DOI assistant secretary for land and minerals management. The reorganization leaves these two functions and lines of authority in the same part of DOI as MMS.

Third, the order creates the Office of Natural Resources Revenue to conduct activities related to both the onshore and offshore collection of revenues, compliance auditing, and investigations and enforcement. This office will also have a director but be under the supervision of the assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget.

There is no timetable for the reorganization. The two assistant secretaries are responsible for implementing the order, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and relevant congressional committees and are required to report a plan for achieving the changes to Salazar within 30 days.

The head of MMS at the time of the explosion, Elizabeth Birnbaum, resigned May 27 under pressure from the administration, according to The Washington Post. Birnbaum was appointed by Salazar in July 2009. Bob Abbey, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, is the new acting director of MMS and will have much of the responsibility for implementing the reorganization plan.

There was mixed reaction to Salazar's restructuring plan. For example, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) criticized the plan because it merely raises the conflict-of-interest issues that have characterized MMS up one level within DOI. "Conflicts between resource protection and promotion are merely elevated, not eliminated, as the new entities are supervised by political appointees with energy and revenue production mandates," according to PEER's press release.

The Center for Biological Diversity's (CBD) executive director, Kierán Suckling, said in a press release on the restructuring, “It is only a baby step forward, but at least it is in the right direction." CBD's statement went on to criticize Salazar for not changing the substantive processes that helped lead to the BP Deepwater disaster, such as issuing environmental impact waivers and approving drilling and production applications without having legally required permits in place. According to the Post article, Suckling also noted that Salazar had appointed a former BP executive, Sylvia Baca, to be the deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, the office that oversees MMS and will oversee two of the new offices created by Salazar's order.

President Obama and Salazar have made changes to the substantive processes used by MMS. In his May 27 report to the president on immediate and long-term steps that could improve the safety of offshore drilling, Salazar makes several recommendations. The recommendations include mandatory inspections of the blowout preventers that are used on mobile drilling rigs to see that they meet design specifications and improving the testing and inspections process for blowout preventers. Failure of the blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon rig was one of the leading causes of the explosion and spill.

Other recommendations addressed a systems-based approach to improve safety. According to the report, "The Department [DOI] is committed to moving to finalize a rulemaking that would require operators to adopt a systems-based approach to safety and environmental management. This rule would require operators to incorporate global best practices regarding environmental and safety management on offshore platforms into their operating plans and procedures. In finalizing this rulemaking, the Department will analyze carefully the current circumstances in the Gulf of Mexico and lessons learned from the ongoing investigation into the causes of the BP Oil Spill."

The report also recommended a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs. The moratorium was not limited to the Gulf. In addition, Salazar called for a halt to drilling operations for six months on all 33 deepwater wells that are currently being drilled from floating rigs in the Gulf.

In accepting Salazar's recommendations at a press conference May 27, Obama announced additional steps to address the oil spill, including the suspension of oil exploration off the coast of Alaska and the cancellation of pending and proposed lease sales in the Gulf and off the coast of Virginia.

Whether these changes will lead to long-term safety and accountability improvements in managing and overseeing offshore resource extraction remains to be seen. The many investigations into the causes of the oil disaster may help identify the many fixes that need to occur to avoid another human and environmental catastrophe of this type. It is likely that DOI will be reacting to this event for years to come.