US needs balanced offshore energy portfolio-MMS head

By Bruce Nichols

HOUSTON,, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The new head of the U.S. Minerals Management Service said on Thursday that all forms of energy should be harvested from the nation's offshore areas -- including wind and waves as well as oil and natural gas.

The nation should continue to develop as much offshore oil and gas as can be produced in an environmentally responsible way, Liz Birnbaum, who became MMS director in July, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Birnbaum said she also sees an expanded role for renewable sources of energy offshore.

"The agency has already started in this direction," she said, referring to plans for offshore wind and wave power. "But by the time I have left, I hope it will have a comprehensive energy portfolio on the continental shelf," she said.

The continental shelf is the area administered by the MMS offshore, including submerged lands beyond the states' seaward jurisdiction - no more than 10 miles (16.2 km) - out to 200 nautical miles (370 km).

"We clearly need to continue to develop our domestic energy, both onshore and offshore, Birnbaum said. "The goal is to decrease our dependence on foreign sources of energy."

Birnbaum comes to the MMS as a lawyer who has worked on natural resource issues for the federal government and environmental advocacy groups, but she said she does not bring a pro-environment, anti-oil industry perspective to the job.

Birnbaum takes the helm of an agency tarred by a 2008 scandal that came to light when the agency was under the direction of her predecessor, Randall Luthi, where department workers had sex with and took gifts from employees at regulated oil companies.