Dividing the objectives forces the tradeoff to be made via inter-agency coordination. Maybe there is virtue in the resulting transparency. The problem with industry capture is the favoring of one set of constituents at the expense of others, and more transparent decisionmaking would constrain such choices.

It seems to me that the real issue here is an agency with two objectives (MMS both has incentives to maximize revenue and police safety) that has had serious agency capture problems by its regulated constituency for some time. None of that is news to people who follow drilling regulation and it was known long before the unfortunate accident aboard Deepwater Horizon.

For those who have been rationally ignorant about the problems at MMS, perhaps the crisis is a wake-up call to think through the agencies role in all of this. It would seem that the Obama Administration has done just that. Note that this might not lead to stricter laws and/or regulations, only a different exercise of agency discretion within the policy space outlined by MMS’s statutory and regulatory mandate. And perhaps the severing of the two objectives (production and safety) into two institutions.

From your perspective would that be a bad thing?

Best,
Michael