It’s official: A new cop is on the beat to police the offshore drilling industry.
Rear Adm. James Watson today was sworn in as director of the Interior Department’s new Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. He replaces Michael Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor who spent 17 months spearheading an overhaul of the nation’s offshore drilling programs.
Watson’s last gig was as the Coast Guard’s director of prevention policy for marine safety, security and stewardship. But Gulf Coast residents and oil industry workers may know Watson best from his time leading the government’s response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster after June last year.
Watson is retiring from the Coast Guard to take on the new job at the safety bureau.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar administered the oath of office. Watson was sworn in with his wife Anne Watson by his side.
Watson takes on a job that will put him on a political hot seat — dealing with the oil and gas industry and frequently answering questions from congressional critics unhappy with the pace of new regulations imposed since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. During less than a year and a half overseeing offshore drilling, Bromwich testified 15 times in front of Congress.
Industry leaders and advocates in Congress who have complained that the permitting of offshore drilling projects has unnecessarily slowed under Bromwich say they are hopeful Waston will bring a fresh approach to the post.
Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., said he was “very optimistic.” Although Watson — like Bromwich — doesn’t enter the Interior Department with a background in the offshore oil and gas industry, his Coast Guard experience put him in touch with peripheral issues, Landry noted.
Since “the offshore industry is so intertwined in the maritime industry,” Landry said, it’s likely Watson was involved in such issues as regulation of offshore supply vessels and mobile drilling units.
Although Bromwich’s last day at BSEE is today, he’ll be staying on as a senior adviser to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar through the end of the year.
Bromwich’s next steps are unclear, but he said he wants to remain involved in some of the issues he’s been tackling in the Interior Department, even though he has vowed never to rejoin or be centrally involved lobbying the federal offshore drilling agencies.
“I have imposed on myself a lifetime ban on direct dealings with this agency,” Bromwich said, adding that his prohibition extended not just to the safety bureau but also the separate Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
