"It's encouraging the Obama administration wants to toughen safety standards for new deep-water rigs; we await details to see if these standards are truly adequate. It is also disappointing the Interior Department didn't immediately strengthen such standards after April 20. The lag time only adds to the perception that Obama is being reactive instead of proactive.

Obama says he wants to end the "cozy relationship" that exists between MMS regulators and the oil industry, and last week, Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the MMS, became the sacrificial lamb for this cause.

Despite her resignation, further disinfectant may be needed. Particularly curious is the Interior Department's deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management, Sylvia V. Baca. Baca worked in the Clinton administration, then worked for eight years at BP before coming back to Interior, where she now oversees the MMS.

In recent days, the president has pushed to pass an energy bill that reduces U.S. dependence on fossil fuels -- an addiction, he rightly says, that leads to disasters like the one in the gulf.

That's a worthy cause, but it can't be divorced from the immediate need: to fully cap the leak, mitigate the spread of oil and better regulate an industry that has run the shop at MMS for far too long."

Get the Story:
Our view: A poor watch (The Anchorage Daily News 6/5)

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