The Coast Guard shares jurisdiction, over vessels that conduct drilling operations on the Outer Continental Shelf, with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, or BSEE.
“Both the Coast Guard and BSEE understand that regulations can only set minimum expectations for passive and active safety measures; it is only through a true safety culture that behavior is modified and safety is vastly improved,” said Rear Adm. Paul Thomas, Coast Guard assistant commandant for prevention policy.
Both regulatory agencies are promoting a safety culture in offshore safety. This month, the Coast Guard, wants to discuss offshore safety on Maritime Commons through our blog and Twitter feeds.
As a part of this continued discussion, Thomas wants to share some information from the Coast Guard’s regulatory partner in offshore activities.
BSEE defines safety culture as the core values and behaviors of all members of an organization that reflect a commitment to conducting business in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.
“Regulations and inspections alone will not ensure safe offshore operations. Both BSEE and the Coast Guard need offshore workers to be active participants in creating a strong safety culture,” said Brian Salerno, director of BSEE. “This means going beyond baseline compliance with regulations and toward the adoption, by everyone, of the responsibility for managing work safely. Safety culture means doing the right thing even when no one else is watching.”
BSEE Announces Final Safety Culture Policy Statement: In this announcement, BSEE shares nine characteristics of a robust safety culture.
BSEE Safety Culture Policy: In this announcement, BSEE defines safety culture and addresses comments received through the rulemaking process.
BSEE Safety Culture Policy Statement: In this statement, the Director of BSEE shares internal safety culture expectations for BSEE employees
This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.