Top Interior official on offshore drilling to move posts

A top Interior Department official brought on in the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is leaving his post, The Houston Chronicle reports.

The paper reports that Tommy Beaudreau, the acting assistant secretary of Land and Minerals Management and director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, is poised to take over Interior’s budget and policy office.

{mosads}President Obama on Wednesday nominated current head of the Office of Policy, Management and Budget, Rhea Suh, to be assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. Beaudreau would take Suh’s spot.

Beaudreau played a critical role during the oversight that followed the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

He was also a key architect of Interior’s 2012-2017 offshore oil-and-gas leasing plan, and has supported balancing oil and gas development with marine life and other needs, the Chronicle story notes.

The Interior Department would not comment on the move.

This post was updated at 7:40 a.m. on Oct. 31.