Michael Bromwich, who has been the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement for the past year, will remain with the Interior Department as head of the new Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement until a permanent director can be selected, Interior announced Friday.
Bromwich has presided over a major reorganization of the department, which will result in BOEMRE splitting into two, smaller agencies on October 1.
Tommy Beaudreau, who has served as a senior adviser to Bromwich for the past year, will become head of the new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
"Director Bromwich is a top-flight manager with a track record of solving problems and implementing reform, in the private sector, in the public sector, and his time at BOEMRE," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. "Tommy Beaudreau has been an engine behind the many changes BOEMRE has made to raise the bar for safety and environmental protection in energy operations. He will be a strong, tireless, and effective leader for BOEM."
Interior has launched a nationwide recruitment effort to find a permanent BSEE director, Salazar said.
On May 19, 2010, about a month after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Salazar announced he would split the former Minerals Management Services into three new departments to avoid conflicts of interest. The Office of Natural Resource Revenue was split off when MMS was renamed BOEMRE.
BOEM will be responsible for energy leasing, environmental reviews and developing the five-year plan that lays out a leasing schedule for the Outer Continental Shelf.
BSEE will conduct offshore inspections and enforce safety and environmental regulations.
Beaudreau and Bromwich were both partners at the D.C. law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. They worked together on several projects, including serving as federally-appointed monitors of the Metropolitan D.C. Police Department. At Fried Frank, Beaudreau focused his practice on criminal and civil litigation matters, including white-collar criminal defense and internal corporate investigations, according to the law firm's website.
At BOEMRE, Beaudreau has played a behind-the-scenes role as an adviser to Bromwich and in developing and implementing the agency's new safety and environmental regulations.
"The nation's offshore energy resources, both conventional and renewable, are essential to our country's economy and security," Beaudreau said in a statement. "The new BOEM will be focused on ensuring that our offshore resources are developed sensibly and responsibly. I am proud to be BOEM's first director and look forward to helping fulfill Secretary Salazar's and Director Bromwich?s vision for this new agency."
