Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today introduced legislation to reform drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf.

"The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has spotlighted several areas of the law that must be changed to ensure nothing like this ever happens again," Bingaman said.  "This bill contains a number of important steps to improve the safety of drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf."

The Outer Continental Shelf Management Reform Act of 2010 (S. 3514), which is cosponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), requires the Department of Interior (DOI) to reform the Minerals Management Service to prevent conflicts of interests between its revenue-raising missions and its planning, permitting and regulatory missions.  The measure helps develop new and better drilling technology by setting up a new research program within the DOI.

S. 3514 also increases safety requirements for drilling wells.  And it imposes an inspection fee on industry participants to fully fund enough well-trained inspectors to perform inspections more often.  It increases the sanctions on bad operators, including increased civil and criminal penalties for those who violate the law; it also increases financial responsibility requirements to ensure that those we develop the Outer Continental Shelf can afford to pay for any damages.

Finally, the bill takes steps to ensure that the taxpayers will get a fair return for development of energy.  The Secretary of Interior will be required to regularly review the amounts of royalties and other charges applicable to those developing the Outer Continental Shelf.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, which Bingaman chairs, will have a hearing on the measure Thursday.