Whistleblower protection may go silent

Agency could drop recommendations made after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy

A federal agency may decide Tuesday to withdraw its recommendations to extend whistleblower protections for offshore oil workers made in the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Interior Department’s offshore bureau is refusing to enact the protections, arguing that they’re not a priority and possibly outside of the bureau’s authority. So the recommending agency, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, called the CSB, is considering canceling some of the 2016 proposals entirely.

The April 2016 recommendations under debate would require more participation from oil rig employees who could order the stoppage of work in the event of safety concerns and provide them legal whistleblower protections against retaliation.

Withdrawing these recommendations could prove disastrous, especially when it comes to the failure to protect whistleblowers and identify the root causes of these incidents, said Jordan Barab, a former CSB investigator and deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“You’re just inviting these kinds of accidents to happen over and over again,” Barab said, arguing that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has the authority to act.

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 workers and resulted in a three-month discharge of nearly 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. The resulting investigations determined that BP and the other companies involved cut corners and ignored warning signs.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement was created in 2011 because of the regulatory failings identified after the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.

CSB Chairwoman Vanessa Sutherland said her independent agency doesn’t have regulatory authority and cannot force BSEE to adopt its recommendations. So the CSB may instead ask Congress to resolve conflicting or ambiguous jurisdictions, she said, and spell out what authorities fall under BSEE, the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration or the Coast Guard.

For now, the BSEE is focused instead on relieving the offshore energy sector of any unnecessary regulations without jeopardizing safety, the BSEE’s Gregory Julian said.

Under President Donald Trump, the Interior Department has switched its focus to promoting the expansion of oil and gas production both onshore and off. Trump’s interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has said the stars have lined up for the oil and gas sector and that the U.S. will dominate in the energy sector.

BSEE didn’t object to the 2016 CSB recommendations until March of this year.

Douglas Morris, chief of the BSEE’s offshore regulatory program, told the CSB that it should instead work with industry groups like the American Petroleum Institute and the International Association of Drilling Contractors to develop voluntary worker participation and whistleblower guidelines for companies.

Legislation died in Congress in 2010 that would have created offshore whistleblower protections.

“There is currently no federal law adequately protecting offshore workers who blow the whistle on worker health and safety hazards,” according to a statement from the White House under former President Barack Obama, which endorsed the legislation.

One CSB board member, Rick Engler, is adamantly arguing against withdrawing the recommendations. He spoke up at the CSB’s last meeting in October.

Engler pointed out that the BSEE’s own Safety and Environmental Management Systems rule clearly addresses worker participation, although not adequately. So the recommendations should definitely fall within the BSEE’s purview, he said.

“Safety cannot be achieved without the meaningful engagement of workers,” Engler said last month. “There is evidence of retaliation against whistleblowers in the Gulf of Mexico, but no effective measures for workers to seek out.”

Engler cited the case of Deepwater Horizon victim Jason Anderson, whose wife testified that Anderson had expressed fears for his safety shortly before the explosion, but told her: “I can’t talk about it now. The walls are too thin.”

Engler reiterated the massive human and environmental toll taken in the tragedy.

“We are entrusted by the American people to do all that we can do to prevent such catastrophes,” he said. “I hope that we will not fall short.”