The Interior Department today announced that Coast Guard Rear Adm. James Watson will replace Michael Bromwich as the nation's top official in charge of offshore oil and gas permitting and safety.

Watson, who coordinated the government's response to the BP PLC Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, will begin his new job on Dec. 1.

Bromwich, who since summer 2010 led one of the most sweeping overhauls of offshore drilling regulation in the nation's history, will serve as a counselor to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar through the end of December, when Bromwich is scheduled to leave the agency.

Watson, who is currently the Coast Guard's director of prevention policy for marine safety, security and stewardship in Washington, D.C., will become director of Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

"Admiral Watson has the experience, leadership, and vision that BSEE needs to be successful in establishing and enforcing safety and environmental protections for offshore oil and gas operations," Salazar said in a statement. "Admiral Watson will bring to the job a distinguished record, a commitment to tough and fair-minded enforcement, and the determination to advance our reform agenda for the benefit of the American people and industry."

Watson was deputy commander for the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area Command in April 2010 when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, taking the lives of 11 men and releasing nearly 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf.

On June 1, 2010, he was picked to replaced Rear Adm. Mary Landry as the federal on-scene coordinator for the government's response to the spill, a move that was designed to allow Landry to prepare the region for hurricane season.

At BSEE, Watson will oversee offshore permitting and research, inspections, regulatory programs, oil spill response and newly formed training and environmental compliance functions, Interior said.

"I look forward to leading the dedicated BSEE professionals to ensure each and every offshore operation is safe, secure, and environmentally sound," Watson said in a statement.

Prior to his role at Atlantic Area Command, Watson served as the Coast Guard's director of prevention policy for marine safety, security and stewardship, where he was responsible for waterways management, boating safety, commercial vessel safety and security, ports and cargo safety and security, maritime investigations, and quality traveling inspectors.

Bromwich's departure will end a nearly one-and-a-half-year tenure that brought major regulatory change to an agency long accused of being too cozy with industry. It was an agency many also complained was vastly underfunded.

Bromwich's role enforcing a temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling and pushing new rules to improve worker safety and industry response to worst-case spills often landed him in the hot seat on Capitol Hill, where he faced Republican and industry critics.

Interior officials in September acknowledged the challenge of finding a willing candidate to fill Bromwich's role. Some candidates said they did not want the political pressure that comes with the job of striking difficult balances between energy development and environmental safety.

Salazar credited Bromwich with implementing "the most significant reforms to offshore oil and gas safety in U.S. history, while continuing to take steps to safely and responsibly expand domestic energy production."

"I deeply appreciate his enormous contributions and tireless work on behalf of the nation," he said.

Bromwich, who formerly led the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, was picked to lead BSEE when it was established at the beginning of last month. Tommy Beaudreau was picked to lead the new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees offshore leasing and exploration planning.

In a briefing with reporters earlier this fall, Bromwich said one of the agency's biggest accomplishments over the past year was securing additional funding to hire more inspections personnel.

"One of the most enduring things that has happened ... is we've brought attention to the fact that this agency and now these agencies require significant resources to do their job," he said. "That's the missing element; that's what had been missing for 28 years, particularly on the regulatory and enforcement side."

One of Watson's early challenges will be overseeing the issuance of drilling permits for Royal Dutch Shell PLC to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean. The permits, if granted, would be one of the final federal steps to allowing Arctic drilling.

Reid Porter, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, said the group looks forward to working with Watson in his new position.