Interior Department Announces Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Leadership Transition

Date: Thursday, August 29, 2024
Contact: Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov

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.

“Under Director Sligh’s leadership, the Interior Department has implemented successful response efforts and transitioned the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to reflect its diversified mission and expanded its regulatory focus to include not only conventional oil and gas development, but also the growing offshore wind industry and emerging carbon sequestration opportunities. We are grateful for Kevin’s service to the Department and wish him well,” said Chief of Staff Rachael S. Taylor. “Kati’s commitment to the Department over the past several years has been steadfast, and I know we will be in steady hands as she steps in to lead BSEE and its dedicated workforce.”

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.

In April, the Department also finalized updated regulations for renewable energy development on the OCS, for which BSEE and BOEM have complementary obligations. The final rule increases certainty and reduces the costs associated with the deployment of offshore wind projects by modernizing regulations, streamlining overly complex processes and removing unnecessary ones, clarifying ambiguous regulatory provisions, and enhancing compliance requirements. Over the next 20 years, the final rule is expected to result in cost savings of roughly $1.9 billion to the offshore wind industry, savings that can be passed onto consumers and used to invest in additional job-creating clean energy projects. 

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.  

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