Salazar announces more drilling reforms; Homeland Security, BP to testify on oil spill

Salazar announces onshore drilling reforms

WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is announcing more reforms that he says will improve environmental protections for oil and gas leasing on public lands. Salazar portrayed the reforms to practices by the Bureau of Land Management as a response to the BP oil spill, although the measures apply to onshore drilling for oil and natural gas rather than offshore drilling.

The announcement comes on the eve of Salazar’s testimony Tuesday to two Senate hearings looking into the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, meanwhile, is expected to defend the government’s response to the Gulf Coast spill Monday in the Obama administration’s first congressional testimony on the incident.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to defend the government’s response to the Gulf Coast oil spill in the Obama administration’s first congressional testimony on the incident.

Napolitano and Coast Guard Rear Admiral Neffenger will testify about the response to the spill Monday afternoon before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee.

BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay is also scheduled to testify Monday. McKay and other oil executives were on Capitol Hill last week.

President Barack Obama called their testimony a “ridiculous spectacle” of shifting blame for the deadly incident.