Excerpts from US Dept. of the Interior Announcement
WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior today announced that Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Kevin M. Sligh will depart his position effective September 6, after serving in the role for the past two and a half years. Kathryn (Kati) E. Kovacs, who serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, will assume leadership of the bureau.
A cornerstone of Director Sligh’s tenure was a focus on the enhancement of BSEE’s emergency response capabilities. This included the first capping stack exercises in a decade, critical high-stakes operations designed to demonstrate the bureau’s readiness to rapidly seal off uncontrolled well blowouts on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). In addition, BSEE implemented improvements to its capabilities at its National Oil Spill Response Research and Renewable Energy Test Facility (Ohmsett), where new technologies and training are helping the United States and the international community better plan for and respond to oil spills and advance new renewable energy science and technologies. These efforts were essential in testing and proving BSEE’s ability to manage potential offshore incidents effectively, ensuring that the bureau and industry responders are equipped to act swiftly and efficiently if needed.
In her current role, Kovacs has had oversight over BSEE, focusing on their regulatory agenda. Thanks to both Kovacs’ and Sligh’s leadership during the Biden-Harris administration, the Department made significant progress in expanding its oversight of renewable energy sources, including the enactment of a final rule that transferred safety and environmental compliance responsibilities for offshore renewable energy from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to BSEE. The rule recognized that the scopes of the bureaus’ roles and responsibilities had matured since they were created more than a decade ago following the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and supports the Department’s commitment to independent regulatory oversight and enforcement in the renewable energy program.
Prior to joining the Department in April 2022, Kovacs was a professor of law at Rutgers University. Kovacs’ public service career also includes 12 years in the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Appellate Section and service as a senior advisor to the director of the Bureau of Land Management in 2016. Kovacs also served in the Baltimore City Law Department as an attorney and clerked for former Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals Robert C. Murphy. She is a graduate of Yale University and the Georgetown University Law Center.
Interestingly, on 18 Sept., Ms. Kovacs will be making a presentation at the Case Western Reserve School of Law entitled Regulating Energy and Land Management at the Department of the Interior. There is no charge to register.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 