A new agency in the Dept. of Interior should be created to oversee and ensure the safety offshore oil and gas operations, according to the report released on Jan. 11 by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.
The call for the new agency—which would be completely separate from a Dept. of the Interior division that would oversee the leasing of offshore tracts for the U.S. government—was one of about 15 recommendations that the presidential appointed commission made in a comprehensive 398-page document examining causes of the April 20 spill, which left 11 workers dead, and recommending solutions to prevent such occurrences in the future.