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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar caught sharp
criticism from lawmakers Tuesday over the government's failures in
overseeing offshore oil drilling, and he acknowledged his
department had been lax in holding industry accountable.


      Salazar, in his first appearance before Congress since the April
20 accident that unleashed a massive Gulf oil spill, promised an
overhaul of the agency that regulates offshore oil drilling to give
it "more tools, more resources, more independence and greater
authority."


      Even as legislators in Washington debated what went wrong,
evidence of the dimensions of the problem only grew. Federal
regulators nearly tripled the federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico
where fishing is shut down because of the spill. And government
scientists were studying aerial photos to see if oil from the spill
had entered a powerful current that could take it to Florida.


      Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., in opening a congressional hearing
into the spill, said Congress wanted to explore "the role of
regulatory failure" in the accident and what President Barack
Obama has acknowledged for years has been a "cozy relationship"
between government regulators and the oil and gas industry.


      While the cause of the accident at the BP PLC well and spill has
yet to be pinpointed, information uncovered so far raises the
question of where the Minerals Management Service, the Interior
agency that oversees offshore drilling, was in ensuring that wells
are drilled safely, said Bingaman.


      Salazar promised an overhaul of federal regulations and said
blame for the BP spill rests with both industry and the government.


      "There will be tremendous lessons to be learned here," he told
legislators, adding that changes in federal law were surely needed.


      But Salazar cautioned against overreaction, noting that the Gulf
waters produce nearly a third of the nation's oil.


      How the government - including Congress - responds to the
offshore disaster is crucial, said Salazar, noting that the
Challenger space shuttle disaster shut down the space program for 2
1/2 years and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident "shut down
the nuclear industry for 30 years."


      Salazar said the "blame game" should be set aside until the
problem is fixed and the flow of oil is shut off from the BP well
40 miles off the Louisiana coast. He said he expects a report to
the president on the spill, due in 30 days, will produce
recommendations to improve safety oversight.


      That didn't satisfy some of the senators.


      "It is long past time to drain the safety and environmental
swamp that is MMS," declared Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "This agency
has been in denial about safety problems for years."


      Wyden said it was time for the government to "play catch-up
ball in a hurry."


      Salazar acknowledged problems at the agency.

      "We need to clean up that house," he said

      Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., noted there had not been a major oil
well blowout and spill in the Gulf for decades and asked whether
both government and industry had become lax. "I would say, yes,"
replied Salazar.


      Salazar denied reports that MMS had approved a number of new oil
drilling applications in deep waters of the Gulf since the
Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill.


      "We have hit the pause button," Salazar said. He said no new
deep water drilling has begun since April 20, and no wells will be
drilled until a safety report is completed on the BP spill later
this month.


      Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes told the committee that
about a dozen applications were approved after April 20, but were
suspended on May 6 before work began. No new deepwater wells will
be drilled until Salazar submits a 30-day safety report requested
by President Barack Obama on May 28, Hayes said.


      The 2 1/2-hour hearing by the Senate energy panel was one of
three on Tuesday into the oil spill.

      The congressional scrutiny came as BP, after three weeks,
appeared to be gaining some control over the amount of oil spewing
into the Gulf. The company said it was capturing 40 percent of the
5,000 barrels a day of oil believed by BP to be flowing from the
well. Some scientists, however, believe the amount of gushing oil
may well be much greater.


      There were ominous signs of the potential environmental fallout
along the Gulf and possibly as far as the Florida Keys and beyond.


      The U.S. Coast Guard reported that 20 tar balls were found off
Key West on Monday. It will require a lab analysis to determine
their origin.

      AP writers H. Josef Hebert and Tom Raum in Washington
contributed to this report.
      

Gallery

BP says its Gulf oil spill costs now $450 million

Political patience wanes as Gulf oil spill grows

Blame game begins in wake of Gulf oil spill

BP preps second attempt to stop oil leak

Even as legislators in Washington debated what went wrong -- and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was criticized -- evidence of the dimensions of the problem of the Gulf oil spill only grew.

Oil near the mouth of the Mississippi River

Lawmakers grill interior secretary over lax oversight of oil drilling

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