U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

MMS CALLS FOR PUBLIC INPUT IN REVIEWING REGULATIONS

The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) published a Federal Register notice on May 20 requesting public comments on significant regulations.

"MMS is committed to ensuring our regulations are necessary, effective, and are written in plain English. This is part of a continuing effort initiated by the President and Vice President to make government more responsive to the American people and less bureaucratic," said MMS Director Cynthia Quarterman.

"MMS has been working diligently to fulfill the President's directive, which calls for streamlining regulations without stripping away those that protect and improve people's lives and the environment. The overall goal is to make government less intrusive and more responsive. We are working with affected parties to eliminate and streamline unnecessary, burdensome and duplicative regulations, which saves the federal government money and meddles less in the lives of citizens," said Quarterman.

The Federal Register notice provides the public an opportunity to comment on MMS regulations that should be eliminated or revised and provides an update of the actions MMS has taken on comments received from the public in response to previous notices published in March 1994 and March 1995.

"MMS will continue to encourage the use of negotiated rulemaking committees, multi-constituent teams, and pilot projects to reach consensus on how to improve its regulations. We have already made remarkable progress on streamlining existing regulations. For example, as a result of comments received from the 1994 Review of Regulations, MMS eliminated several transportation and processing forms and removed sanctions that had been imposed when companies failed to observe reporting procedures in filing those forms. Under the new regulation, companies will still be required to report actual allowances taken, but they will be subject to a more reasonable fine for improper reporting. This is a significant change with savings estimated at $500,000 a year from forms processing and billing, which are no longer required. This and other innovative ideas are trends we want to continue," said Quarterman.

Written comments must be received by July 19. Mail comments to the U.S. Department of the Interior; Minerals Management Service; Mail Stop 4013; 1849 C Street NW; Washington, DC 20240; Attention: Bettine Montgomery, MMS Regulatory coordinator, Policy and Management Improvement.

MMS is the federal agency that manages the Nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the OCS, and collects, accounts for, and distributes about $4 billion yearly in revenues from offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

MMS Internet website address: http://www.mms.gov
24 hour Fax-on- Demand Service: (202) 219-1703