S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, the director of the Minerals Management Service, resigned on Thursday, the first major casualty of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Early reports indicated Birnbaum was fired. But she left “on her own terms and on her own volition,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a press release.

MMS is responsible for collecting royalties for drilling on federal and Indian lands. It's also responsible for managing development but numerous reports have shown conflicts of interest between the agency and the energy industry.

In response to the concerns and to the oil spill disaster, Salazar signed a secretarial order to split MMS into three separate agencies, one of which would only be responsible for royalty collection. Another would be responsible for safety and environmental enforcement. The third would be dedicated to ocean energy management.

Get the Story:
Minerals Management Service Director Resigns Over Spill (The New York Times 5/28)
Estimates of oil leak gush past twice the previous levels; drill permits yanked (The Washington Post 5/28)
Obama struggling to show he's in control of oil spill (The Washington Post 5/28)
Obama Offers Regret Mixed With Resolve (The New York Times 5/28)

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