US Oil Spill Testing, Response Facility Gets Major Upgrade
has now reopened after undergoing significant refurbishment over the past eight months as part of BSEE’s ongoing maintenance plan. Originally constructed and operated by the U.S. EPA in 1974, the facility was passed to the U.S. Navy and then to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service in 1990. Today, it is the only facility in the U.S. conducting full-scale oil spill response research, equipment testing and training using live oil. Because Ohmsett is a wave tank, it has also been used to test renewable energy technologies such as marine hydrokinetic electricity generators
BOEM Announces Final Rule for Oil and Gas Leasing
;s (BOEM) Final Rule for Leasing of Oil and Gas or Sulfur in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) will be published in the Federal Register on March 30, 2016. The final rule updates and streamlines the existing OCS leasing regulations. The update also reflects that the former Minerals Management Service has reorganized and divided into three separate new organizations. The final rule reorganizes and reorders regulations for clarity, eliminates redundant or otherwise unnecessary text, and adds new definitions and sections to standardize or clarify practices in all three BOEM OCS regional
National Ocean Policy, Coastal & Marine Spatial Planning Raising Red Flags
assistant in the U.S. Senate, to an attorney at both the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he worked on natural resource damages following the Exxon Valdez accident. Luthi most recently served as the Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) at DOI. This article originally published in the October 2013 edition of MarineNews, sister-publication to Marine Technology Reporter. (As published in the October 2013 edition of Marine Technology Reporter - www.seadiscovery.com
December 2025
