The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's Alaska region director Mark Fesmire participated in a panel discussion yesterday (April 17) in Washington, D.C. on applying lessons learned for drilling in the Arctic.
During the discussion, hosted by the nonprofit organization Resources for the Future, Fesmire spoke about BSEE's commitment to ensuring that should drilling operations occur in the Arctic, they are done safely.
He also noted the tremendous amount of oil spill recovery research occurring at Ohmsett, the bureau's National Oil Spill Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility, in addition to the ongoing work with BSEE's international partners through the Arctic Council.
BSEE is actively working with its international partners on joint training and exercises, developing international response guidelines, identifying response infrastructure gaps and ways to mitigate them, and conducting field experiments to test technology capabilities so the bureau can understand how to allow drilling activities to be conducted more safely, and with the environment in mind.
The panel was moderated by Fran Ulmer, chairman, US Arctic Research Commission, and also included: Christopher Smith, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, US Department of Energy; William Brown, Chief Environmental Officer, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; Beth Kerttula, Fellow, Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University; and Jacqueline Savitz, Vice President, US Oceans, Oceana.