19 lawmakers wanted MMS to investigate BP last February

Elizabeth Birnbaum, who served as head of MMS until she resigned amid criticism of the beleaguered agency last month, told a House panel on May 26 that the agency has reviewed operations at the Atlantis and has "not found anything" indicating that the rig should be shut down. But Grijalva believes that the agency may just be inspecting the inadequate paperwork that it has already approved without giving the rig any closer scrutiny.


This contention is also supported by Food & Water Watch, which submitted a Freedom of Information Act request on March 1 to MMS for records related to agency employees conducting inspections of the Atlantis rig's subsea documents. The request was rejected—an MMS FOIA officer stated that the agency doesn't require documentation of the subsea components as they were built. Food & Water Watch says that without reviewing those documents, MMS would be unable to truly determine whether or not the rig was safe.