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May 25, 2010

MMS Regulators Allowed Oil Officials to Fill Out Inspection Forms
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As the Obama administration promises more scrutiny of BP, new details
have emerged of the government’s lax oversight of Gulf of Mexico oil
drilling in the years before the spill. The New York Times reports a
forthcoming inspector general investigation has found that federal
regulators at the Minerals Management Service allowed industry officials
to fill out their own inspection reports. The regulators then traced
over the industry officials’ writing in pen and submitted the forms as
their own. In another case, an MMS official conducted inspections of
drilling platforms at the same time as he was negotiating a job with the
drilling company involved. The probe also found that officials at the
MMS field office in Louisiana repeatedly accepted gifts from at least
one oil and gas company.



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