regulators regularly rubber-stamped drilling plans

regulators regularly rubber-stamped drilling plans Tim Probert, chief of health, safety and environmentEdge card for Halliburton, said that all work on the casing by his company was carried out “as directed by the well owner,” meaning BP.

The ranking Republican minority member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, told them to stop the finger-pointing.

“I would suggest to all three of you that we are all in this together,” she said.

If this spill leads to a cutoff of offshore drilling, Ms. Murkowski said, “not only will BP not be out there, but the Transoceans won’t be out there to drill the rigs and the Halliburtons won’t be out there cementing.”

Several senators complained of what they said was the Minerals Management Service’s lax enforcement of safety and environmental standards, saying that regulators regularly rubber-stamped drilling plans that lacked detailed environmental assessments.

Senator Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said that the agency had granted BP an exemption from filing an environmental impact statement for the well that blew up, accepting company assurances that the chances of a major spill were remote. Such waivers are routinely granted when an impact statement has already been filed for a wider drilling area, but some environmentalists contend that a statement should be filed for each well.

“I am concerned that reports of corruption at M.M.S. — including illicit activities — might have played a role in these decisions and this approach,” Mrs. Boxer said. “Clearly, stronger, more independent oversight of oil company activities is needed.”

She was alluding to revelations two years ago that some minerals management officials in Colorado accepted gifts, trips, drugs and sexual favors from oil company representatives. The Interior Department’s inspector general found numerous abuses and characterized the agency as an ethical wasteland.