President Donald Trump has proposed a $204.9 million Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). “The budget ensures continued support of the offshore energy industry’s safe and responsible operations providing for secure and reliable energy production for America’s future,” according to BSEE, the federal agency charged with ensuring safe and environmentally responsible energy production on the U.S. outer continental shelf through regulatory oversight of oil and gas operations.

The FY 2018 budget request is $204.9 million, a $600,000 increase above the FY 2017 CR level, and includes $112.0 million in current appropriations and $92.9 million in revenue from rental receipts, cost recoveries, and inspection fees.

“President Trump promised the American people he would cut wasteful spending and make the government work for the taxpayer again, and that’s exactly what this budget does,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. “Working carefully with the President, we identified areas where we could reduce spending and also areas for investment, such as addressing the maintenance backlog in our National Parks and increasing domestic energy production on federal lands. The budget also allows the Department to return to the traditional principles of multiple-use management to include both responsible natural resource development and conservation of special places. Being from the West, I’ve seen how years of bloated bureaucracy and D.C.-centric policies hurt our rural communities. The President’s budget saves taxpayers by focusing program spending, shrinking bureaucracy, and empowering the front lines.”

“The President’s proposed FY 2018 budget fully reflects the administration’s emphasis on ensuring the safe and responsible development and production of the Nation’s offshore energy resources,” said Acting Director Margaret N. Schneider. “The President’s request supports BSEE’s efforts to permit offshore energy operations efficiently and ensure safety of advanced technology required to explore, develop, and produce in deeper waters and challenging environments.”

“The Bureau uses a comprehensive program of appropriate regulations, compliance monitoring and enforcement, inspections, technical assessments, and incident investigations to mitigate risk and ensure safe and responsible operations,” Schneider said.

The FY 2018 budget supports the following priorities:

America First Energy: To advance domestic energy production while ensuring that development of the Nation’s vast offshore energy resources is conducted in a safe and environmentally-responsible manner, the 2018 budget provides for the continued training and retention of expert engineers, scientists, inspectors, and oil spill planning, prevention, and response specialists and other disciplines.

Consistent with Secretary Zinke’s support of focusing resources on the front lines and reviewing the work processes of the Bureau, BSEE’s budget request includes a $1.2 million increase for training. This increase will expand staff development efforts for BSEE’s field inspectors and engineers to ensure staff have the tools needed to streamline permitting and support BSEE’s efforts to efficiently provide for secure and reliable energy production.

Oil Spill Research: To support Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s priority of increased access to the U.S. outer continental shelf for energy development, the budget request for BSEE includes $12.7 million for oil spill research This will help protect public lands by addressing key knowledge and technology gaps in oil spill response, focusing on deepwater and Arctic environments.

BSEE’s FY 2018 Budget Justification will be available at 2:00pm Eastern here.

Source: www.worldoil.com