"A Coast Guard admiral who led the government's response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster is taking over as the nation's chief overseer of offshore drilling safety, the Obama administration said Monday. Rear Adm. James Watson begins his post as director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement on Dec. 1."

"Watson, now the Coast Guard's director of prevention policy for marine safety, security and stewardship, is a veteran of the 2010 Gulf oil spill, having served as the federal on-scene coordinator of the government response to the disaster. ...

Watson will take the reins from Michael Brom-wich, a former federal prosecutor who has briefly led the bureau as an interim director and, before that, spent more than a year spearheading a major overhaul of the government's oversight of offshore drilling as head of the now-defunct Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement.

Industry officials generally welcomed the move."

Jennifer A. Dlouhy reports for the Houston Chronicle November 14, 2011. [2]