Hastings plans Gulf energy oversight, cautious on new bills

The presumptive GOP Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee is ready to flex the panel’s oversight muscle on offshore-drilling policy and other topics when Republicans take control next year.

But Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) — in an interview with E2 Wire on Wednesday — sounded cautious notes about moving legislation to overhaul offshore-energy rules, noting lawmakers should first see what an ongoing probe of the BP oil spill yields.

House oversight has atrophied in recent years under both Democrats and Republicans, said Hastings, whose committee oversees the Interior Department and parts of several other major agencies.

“There needs to be oversight on a regular basis so the American people can understand what the executive branch is doing,” said Hastings, who was first elected in 1994.

“We need to look at a variety of things. Let’s start with the spill in the Gulf,” he added. Hastings noted that the presidential commission probing the BP spill and drilling regulation is slated to unveil its findings in January.

Hastings also noted concerns among Gulf Coast lawmakers that Interior is restricting offshore-drilling permits, and he has questions about the White House edits of a key Interior Department drilling-safety report.

Hastings called offshore-energy production a national-security priority and an important source of jobs, while noting that the U.S. drilling rules should be the “safest in the world.”

He’s confident Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) – the presumptive Speaker in the new Congress – will give him room to maneuver.

“What he wants to do, and I certainly support, is giving more authority to the individual committees within the House,” Hastings said.

But how this oversight might translate into legislation is less certain, even as the Interior Department continues to press Congress to codify a suite of measures already underway to improve offshore governance.

Last summer, the House passed sweeping Democratic legislation that would reorganize Interior’s offshore department and impose new drilling-safety standards, some of which Interior is doing with its existing power.

But Hastings and other Republicans bashed the legislation — sponsored by current Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) — over provisions they called harmful.

They included unlimited liability for companies responsible for offshore spills, which critics said would make it impossible for small U.S. producers to operate in the Gulf.

Hastings and others also attacked new fees the bill would levy on oil-and-gas production on federal lands and offshore, permanent spending programs in the measure.

At any rate, Hastings said Wednesday it was premature to legislate this year when the Gulf spill is still under investigation.

“We didn’t know what we were responding to,” he said.

He’s not yet ready to commit to major new legislation.

“The American people would like to see, to the extent that we can, closure on [the oil spill] from the standpoint of making sure that our drilling is the safest and yet still creates jobs,” Hastings said.

“To the extent that we can look at that, come up with something, it can only happen if we know all of the facts. That’s why we wait for the president’s report and start with that and then we will proceed from there,” he added.