US Seeks to Streamline Offshore Management in Regulator Overhaul

The US Interior Department said it’s merging two oversight agencies to create a Marine Minerals Administration and move toward a “more modern, coordinated approach” to managing offshore resources, including critical minerals.

The goal is to “improve coordination and increase efficiencies across offshore leasing, permitting, inspections and environmental oversight, while maintaining all existing regulatory protections and rigorous safety standards,” the Interior Department said in a statement Friday.

The two agencies — the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement — were part of the Minerals Management Service until its dissolution in 2011 after the Deepwater ...