On March 6, 2012, Clinic students Douglas Hastings (JD ’13), Chase Romney (JD ’12), and Sophie Tease (LLM ’12) traveled to Washington D.C. with Clinical Professor and Director Wendy Jacobs to present their work and recommendations on offshore drilling to the Directors of two bureaus within the U.S. Department of the Interior – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). The students made a separate trip to D.C. to present their work to legislative staff on Capitol Hill.
Their presentation, entitled “The Role of Industry in Regulating Offshore Drilling”, focused on the characteristics of effective safety and environmental regulatory programs and how industry involvement can enhance or hinder the success of those programs. The students identified voluntary and mandatory programs related to health, environment, and safety; analyzed the role of industry; ascertained the successes and failures associated with those programs; and concluded with a set of recommendations for Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS).