CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript

Interview

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DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On what's become a laundry list of people and agencies partly responsible for the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, the Mineral Management Service stands out, way out. REP. GENE TAYLOR (D), MISSISSIPPI: As far as either the dead or missing battery, the leaking hydraulics, would you address those at this time? Because it doesn't sound to me, if that is true, that you folks were doing your job.

ELIZABETH BIRNBAUM, FORMER MMS DIRECTOR: I really cannot speak to those matters because those are matters that are subject to the current investigation.

MATTINGLY: That is Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the Mineral Management Services, or MMS, until she resigned on May 27th. Birnbaum became head of MMS in July of last year. Her main job: to overhaul the agency that regulates offshore oil and natural gas drilling, something her critics say she didn't even begin to do.

BRENT COON, ATTORNEY, SUED BP AFTER TEXAS CITY EXPLOSION: She obviously failed. We wouldn't have the spill out there that we have now if she would have done all the things that she was assigned to do.

MATTINGLY: Attorney Brent Coon has focused on the oil industry for over 25 years and says the problems are far bigger than just one person at MMS. It's the entire way the agency conducts business. MMS not only oversees safety and environmental standards of oil companies but also collects revenues from them.

COON: How could you have an administration and an agency charged with the responsibility for getting money in, in royalties, and at the same time having the responsibility of restricting access only to those that were demonstrating the proper set of conduct? I mean, it's a built-in conflict.

MATTINGLY: A built-in conflict, which has led to a history of misconduct. A report released by the inspector general's office reveals that MMS employees accepted gifts, used drugs, and had sexual relationships with oil industry employees -- which critics say calls into question MMS' enforcement of some environmental and safety standards.

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: You can't trust MMS. They've shown that they're too cozy with industry.

SEN. RON WYDEN (D), ENERGY & NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: It is long past time to drain the safety swamp that has become the Minerals Management Service.

MATTINGLY: And that may be harder to do than one might imagine -- a so-called revolving door between the MMS and the oil industry had workers leaving the agency and going straight to work for oil companies. We contacted MMS for a statement and they declined to comment.

COON: It's sickening that we've allowed people at BP to go out and exploit our resources when they have a long history of deliberately defying our rules and regulations, policies and safeguards.

MATTINGLY: And that is why the Mineral Management Service makes our list of the "Culprits of the Catastrophe."

David Mattingly, CNN, Clearwater, Florida.

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