Obama Appoints Lawyer to Overhaul Oil Drilling Agency
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON — President Obama will use his first Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday night to make the case for a comprehensive energy bill that would reduce the nation’s dependence on oil, and he will name a former Justice Department inspector general to revamp the agency that oversees oil drilling, administration officials say.
The White House announced that Michael R. Bromwich, a Washington lawyer who served in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, would lead the effort to overhaul the Minerals Management Service, the agency that has come under criticism for being too close to the oil companies it regulates.
“For a decade or more, the cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency was allowed to go unchecked,” President Obama said in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon. “That allowed drilling permits to be issued in exchange not for safety plans, but assurances of safety from oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore.”
After 17 months in office that have included combat in two wars, a financial crisis to rival the Great Depression and passage of a landmark health care law that will remake one-sixth of the American economy, Mr. Obama has chosen the solemn setting of the Oval Office to talk to the nation about the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The address will be short, about 15 minutes, and will have four main themes, officials say.
First, the president will lay out how his administration will deal with the oil gushing into the Gulf right now, and what must be done to clean it up over the short and long-term. Second, he will outline the steps his administration is taking to help protect businesses and people suffering as a result of the spill.
Third, he will outline changes in government to “ensure that a disaster such as this never happens again,” one official said. And finally, Mr. Obama will make the case for his long-stalled energy bill.
Here is what to look for:
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