Discussions of last year's Gulf of Mexico oil rig blowout and oil spill return to Capitol Hill this week as the House Natural Resources Committee takes a look at the latest probe released about the disaster.

A federal task force last week released its highly anticipated report that blamed much of the trouble on poor management decisions by BP PLC (Greenwire, Sept. 14).

The 212-page report -- the second volume of a two-part Coast Guard-Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement probe -- also makes a series of regulatory recommendations to improve the safety of offshore drilling. The report's findings do not stray far from those of other investigations into the disaster, but the new report places the blame more squarely on BP's shoulders.

"As a prudent operator, BP should have complete control of operations and issues surrounding operations on its lease," the report says. "BP's failure to have full supervision and accountability over the activities associated with the Deepwater Horizon was a contributing cause of the Macondo blowout."

This week, members of the House Natural Resources Committee will hear from some of the investigators who wrote the report.

"This is another significant report on the disaster, and I'm hopeful it will give us a clearer picture about what happened so Congress, industry and the administration can move forward responsibly and appropriately," committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said in a statement. "I'm confident that with a far more complete reporting of the facts, we will be able to take a thoughtful approach to real reforms to ensure continued safe American energy production."

Earlier this year, Hastings said he would not work on any oil spill response legislation until after the report's findings were released.

And the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, is likely to remind him of that during Thursday's hearing.

"The facts are now in, and now it is time to take action and implement comprehensive reforms to ensure this kind of accident never occurs again in U.S. waters," Markey said in a statement. "Nearly one year after BP's Macondo well was declared 'dead,' this report shows that we still need a resurrection of attention paid to the safety of our offshore oil industry."

Markey has authored offshore drilling reform legislation that expands upon the language the Democrat-controlled House passed last summer in the wake of the spill. Neither the House nor the Senate has moved on any oil spill-response legislation this year.

Hastings has authored his own legislation that would reorganize BOEMRE, the Interior Department agency that oversees offshore drilling. During a hearing on that language last week, BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich said the proposal would defeat a "fundamental goal" of the agency's internal reorganization that has been ongoing since the disaster began last April.

Bromwich said Hastings' plan would not likely compromise the safety of offshore drilling but could affect the pace of environmental reviews and add new layers of bureaucracy (Greenwire, Sept. 15).

Schedule: The hearing is Friday, Sept. 23, at 10 a.m. in 1324 Longworth.

Witnesses: TBA.