President Barack Obama announced, in his State of the Union address, that his Admin. would be proposing a reorg. of executive branch agencies. On March 11, 2011, the President issued a memorandum to the heads of departments and executive branch agencies providing further detail and direction on the development of a reorg. plan. Contents of this report: (1) Executive Branch Initiatives: The Authority of the President; The Authority of Agency Heads; (2) Congressional Initiatives; (3) Other Proposals and Recommend.; 2010 Fiscal Commission Recommend.; Heritage Fdn. Recommend.; Center for American Progress Recommend.; Report on Duplicative Programs. This is a print on demand report.

“Marine transport, and the law and policy within which it operates, must be seen as very similar to other international undertakings operating on a transnational scale.” These concluding words in Edgar Gold’s Maritime Transport (Lexington, 1981) aptly capture the past, present and future of the regulation of international shipping. The Regulation of International Shipping: International and Comparative Perspectives in Honor of Edgar Gold pays tribute to a mariner, legal practitioner and university teacher with a unique understanding of shipping and maritime trade. With diverse disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives, the distinguished contributors to this tribute examine the public law and policy framework for international navigation, the complex relationship between shipping and the marine environment, the imperative of better protection of seafarers, and ultimately, responsible ocean use. This book includes biographical and bibliographic notes on Edgar Gold.

Policy Shock examines how policy-makers in industrialized democracies respond to major crises. After the immediate challenges of disaster management, crises often reveal new evidence or frame new normative perspectives that drive reforms designed to prevent future events of a similar magnitude. Such responses vary widely - from cosmetically masking inaction, to creating stronger incentive systems, requiring greater transparency, reorganizing government institutions and tightening regulatory standards. This book situates post-crisis regulatory policy-making through a set of conceptual essays written by leading scholars from economics, psychology and political science, which probe the latest thinking about risk analysis, risk perceptions, focusing events and narrative politics. It then presents ten historically-rich case studies that engage with crisis events in three policy domains: offshore oil, nuclear power and finance. It considers how governments can prepare to learn from crisis events - by creating standing expert investigative agencies to identify crisis causes and frame policy recommendations.

On April 20, 2010, an exploratory oil well in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 people and causing the worst oil spill in American history. The oil well was on a tract leased by BP, having obtained a lease and the relevant permits from the fed. gov¿t. Under relevant fed. law, fed. actions that may have adverse environ. effects are required to be reviewed for potential environ. harm under the Nat. Environ. Policy Act (NEPA). This report reviews those environ. procedures. Multiple environ. reviews were conducted by the Minerals Mgmt. Service (MMS) at each stage of OCS development. Contents: (1) Background and Context; (2) NEPA; MMS Reviews, etc. A print on demand publication.

The blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010, led to enormous consequences for the individuals involved in the drilling operations, and for their families. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost their lives and 16 others were seriously injured. There were also enormous consequences for the companies involved in the drilling operations, to the Gulf of Mexico environment, and to the economy of the region and beyond. The flow continued for nearly 3 months before the well could be completely killed, during which time, nearly 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the gulf. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout examines the causes of the blowout and provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well control during offshore drilling. According to this report, companies involved in offshore drilling should take a "system safety" approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation-from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function under all foreseeable conditions-in order to reduce the risk of another accident as catastrophic as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In addition, an enhanced regulatory approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout discusses ultimate responsibility and accountability for well integrity and safety of offshore equipment, formal system safety education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling, and guidelines that should be established so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process. This book will be of interest to professionals in the oil and gas industry, government decision makers, environmental advocacy groups, and others who seek an understanding of the processes involved in order to ensure safety in undertakings of this nature.

Students love good stories. That is why case studies are such a powerful way to engage students while teaching them about concepts fundamental to the study of international relations. In Cases in International Relations, Glenn Hastedt, Vaughn P. Shannon, and Donna L. Lybecker help students understand the context of headline events in the international arena. Organized into three main parts—military, economic, and human security—the book’s fifteen cases examine enduring and emerging issues from the longstanding Arab-Israeli conflict to the rapidly changing field of cyber-security. Compatible with a variety of theoretical perspectives, the cases consider a dispute’s origins, issue development, and resolution so that readers see the underlying dynamics of state behavior and can try their hand at applying theory.