Environment reviews a must for deepwater oil drilling

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration announced Monday it is requiring environmental reviews for all new deepwater oil drilling.

That means an end, at least for now, to exemptions of the kind that allowed BP to drill its blown-out well in the Gulf with little scrutiny.

Meanwhile, technical issues muddled the timing of BP's planned final kill of its blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well as concerns lingered over the food safety and health fallout from the world's worst offshore oil spill. A relief well seen as the permanent solution for the crippled deepwater Macondo shaft was on hold while engineers studied the potential impact of pumping mud and cement into the bottom of the now sealed well, the long-awaited "bottom kill."

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the U.S. government's top oil spill response official, insisted that a definitive kill operation was still the goal, and that BP and government scientists should decide in the next day or two how to go about it.

The administration's announcement on new drilling came in response to a report by the White House Council on Environmental Quality that found decades-old data provided the basis for exempting BP's permits from any extensive review.

The Interior Department said the ban on so-called "categorical exclusions" for deepwater drilling would be in place, pending full review of how such exemptions are granted. "Our decision-making must be fully informed by an understanding of the potential environmental consequences of federal actions permitting offshore oil and gas development," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.

For now, new deepwater drilling is under a temporary moratorium in the Gulf. Once that's lifted, though, Interior's new policy is likely to make it much more time-consuming for oil companies to move forward with new deepwater projects, because environmental assessments will be required along the way. Shallow-water drilling will also be subjected to stricter environmental scrutiny under the new policy.

BP's ability to get environmental exemptions from the Minerals Management Service led to some of the harshest criticism of the now-defunct agency following the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Some 206 million gallons spilled into the Gulf before BP stopped the leak.With Reuters