David J Hayes News

As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above approach to domestic energy development, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director James Watson today announced the Bureau is taking steps to establish an independent Ocean Energy Safety Institute (Institute) to further enhance safe and responsible operations across the offshore oil and gas industry. The Institute will provide a forum for dialogue, shared learning and cooperative research among academia, government, industry and other non-government organizations in offshore-related technologies and activities that ensure safe operations with limited impact to the environment.

A US interagency working group calls for an integrated management strategy for the rapidly changing Arctic. The recently issued report of the inter-agency working group, chaired by Interior Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes, highlights the need for a coordinated approach that uses the best available science to integrate cultural, environmental and economic factors in decision-making about development and conservation. This report chronicles how Arctic residents are dealing with rapid, climate change-induced impacts on their resources and traditional ways of life at the same time that new economic activity and opportunities are emerging — notably oil and gas, marine transportation, tourism and mining,” said Hayes, chair of the Alaska Interagency Working Group that commissioned the report.

Obama Administration Announces New Partnership on Unconventional Natural Gas and Oil Research. Today, three federal agencies announced a formal partnership to coordinate and align all research associated with development of our nation’s abundant unconventional natural gas and oil resources. The partnership exemplifies the cross-government coordination required under President Obama’s executive order released earlier today, which created a new Interagency Working Group to Support Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources. This new partnership will help coordinate current and future research and scientific studies undertaken by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S.

BSEE and NOAA to complete Arctic oil spill response mapping tool. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today they are partnering to enhance the Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA®) for the Arctic region by summer 2012. ERMA® is the same interactive online mapping tool used by federal responders during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This effort will help address numerous…

Secretary Salazar, Interior Department Leadership to Announce 2012-2017 Offshore Oil and Gas Program at 1200 hours today. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Deputy Secretary David J, Hayes, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Tommy P. Beaudreau will hold a news teleconference TODAY to announce the Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. The OCS Lands Act requires that the Secretary of the Interior prepare a 5-Year Program that includes a schedule of oil and gas lease sales indicating the size, timing, and location of proposed leasing activity that the Secretary determines will best meet national energy needs for the 5-year period following its approval…

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) Director Michael R. Bromwich will testify before the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling on Monday, September 27, 2010 at 2:30 p.m. EDT.  They will discuss the Department’s response to the spill, the ongoing comprehensive reform of the offshore oil and gas regulatory framework and environmental recovery efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. Where: Washington Marriott Wardman Park, 2660 Woodley Park Rd. N.W., Washington D.C. Webcast: The hearing will be webcast live at http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/