Sparks fly in the Rachel Maddow Michael Bromwich Interview

According to an article written by Laura Conaway for the Maddowblog titled 'Not fabulous' still good enough for drilling permits “last night, after weeks of unflattering coverage from us of his department, the head of the government agency that gives out deepwater drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico appeared on our show. Michael Bromwich answered questions about why the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement have continued to issue permits even after the agency posted a report showing that blowout preventers may need to be redesigned.”  She included a few key points to the conversation that you will find below but I saw things much differently.

On the new caps for undersea spills, which for BP's disaster were 87 days in coming?

MADDOW: This week, Helix revealed themselves that by their own assessment, it could take them 17 days to contain a spill. Seventeen days is the new fast response that we're supposed to feel better about in terms of containing a disaster that has already happened. That to me that doesn't feel like a great advance that would justify the type of rash issuing of permits that you've just done over the last 33 days.

BROMWICH: Well, these haven't been the rash issuance of permits, as I said. We issued none until the latter part of February. We were strongly criticized for dragging our heels on not issuing any permits for several months after the lifting of the deepwater drilling moratorium which actually lifted in October, not in February. And the reason we didn't was because the containment capabilities were not yet ready.

You're right, 17 days is not fabulous, but 17 days is a lot better than 87 days --

On new regulations for blowout preventers:

MADDOW: The rule-making process for these new rules is going to start in the next few months which would seem to be an acknowledgement that the standards now are too lax and they need to get tougher.  If so, why give out permits now before the new rules are in place?

BROMWICH: Well, you can always improve the equipment that's being used but you -- that doesn't mean that you bring activities to a standstill until you can enhance those rules.  We feel comfortable that with all the new safety regulations, the containment capabilities and the new testing and certification requirements for blowout preventers, we're in a much different and much better position now than we were back in April, even with respect to blowout preventers.

On the safety of oil workers:

MADDOW: The president stopped permits being issued because he said that we would need to be sure that this would never happen again before we started giving those permits out again. The president's oil spill commission released its report on the BP disaster. One of the things they found was that an oil rig worker was four times more likely to be killed working in U.S. waters than in European waters, even though many of the same companies operate in both areas.

Do you have any explanation for that?

BROMWICH: Do you have any explanation for what? For the higher incidence of fatalities here?

MADDOW: Yes.

BROMWICH: No. No, I don't.

What I saw was a contentious debate in the beginning which later turned into an intelligent discussion and what I assume the president meant when he said we can disagree without being disagreeable.  Each had excellent points to make and each made them quite well.  I was so pleased by Rachel’s manner during the interview because she was able to current a different point of view in the most respectfully manner possible as only she could do.  I tremendously enjoyed the exchange and thought that this was the model for all journalist, reporters and commentators to emulate.  There were no winners and losers in this debate because it was about the debate and not about the character of the debaters.  Rachel Maddow proved why she has my favorite show and Mr. Bromwich showed himself to be an honorable and straight shooting person whom I may disagree with his position but I can respect and in the end that’s how it should be.