Senior Interior Department official takes reins at MMS

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has named an interim head for the troubled Minerals Management Service in the wake of the resignation this week of the agency’s director.

Bob Abbey, who heads Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, will also serve as acting director of MMS, replacing Elizabeth Birnbaum, who resigned under pressure Thursday.

The lands agency oversees onshore energy development, while MMS regulates offshore oil-and-gas projects. MMS has come under intense criticism in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, for allegedly lax oversight practices.

Salazar cited the department’s recent overhaul of onshore oil-and-gas leasing rules — which added more environmental reviews — in announcing Abbey’s new role at MMS.

“Bob Abbey’s recent leadership on onshore energy reforms is exactly the kind of experience we need as we continue to reform and begin to restructure MMS,” Salazar said in a statement.  “I appreciate Bob’s willingness to help tackle this crisis in the Gulf.”

Abbey will manage the splintering of MMS into three separate agencies, which Salazar ordered earlier this month.

MMS currently handles leasing and permitting, enforces safety rules and collects billions of dollars annually in production royalties — a mix that Salazar said creates “conflicting missions.”

Abbey will remain head of BLM, but will turn over daily management to deputy director Mike Poole while he oversees the MMS dismantling, Interior said.