Even before the BP oil spill, the federal agency responsible for regulating and monitoring oil and gas extraction, the Minerals Management Service, had come under attack for its regulation of oil and gas leasing and drilling in tax-payer owned public waters.' After a series of investigations, Congress found that the agency was plagued with moral misdeeds and conflicts of interest. Then newly appointed Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar, promised that as "the new sheriff in town" he would clean up the misguided agency and restore order. However, nothing really changed. There is much speculation that between the sex and drug parties and the much deeper relationship between the Louisiana oil industry and the regulatory agency, the MMS' management of oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico ranged from complacent to negligent. Despite the on again-off again moratorium, lawsuits, and international attention MMS' behavior has attracted, MMS has not yet revoked its policy of exempting drilling activities in the Gulf of Mexico from full environmental review. This Article examines the history of the policy of excluding drilling plans from environmental review in the Gulf of Mexico, explains how this contributed to the BP oil spill, and why the Obama administration must take immediate steps to revoke this policy.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences ("NIEHS") defines endocrine disruptors as "chemicals that may interfere with the body's endocrine system and produce adverse developmental, reproductive, neurological, and immune effects in both humans and wildlife." It notes that a wide variety of substances, including pharmaceuticals, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls ("PCBs"), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane ("DDT") and other pesticides, and plasticizers such as bisphenol A (commonly known as "BpA") can cause endocrine disruption.

Endocrine disruptors, also known as endocrine-disrupting chemicals ("EDCs"), exist throughout our environment and work in a variety of nefarious ways. They can mimic naturally occurring hormones like estrogens and androgens, thereby causing overstimulation of the endocrine system. EDCs can bind to receptors within cells and block endogenous hormones from binding, causing interference with the production or control of natural hormones and their receptors. The latest scientific knowledge indicates that EDCs persist throughout the environment, including in our nation's waters, and are having profound effects on fish, wildlife, and humans.

Yet, the U.S. federal government has done very little to protect human health or the environment from these harms. A patchwork of regulatory mechanisms exist-through the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; Safe Drinking Water Act; Toxic Substances Control Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act; and the Clean Water Act. However, as currently implemented, these mechanisms at best provide a regulatory net full of holes whereby EDCs enter and pervade our environment and have astonishing effects. Perhaps the most promising of all existing frameworks is the Clean Water Act ("Act"), which if implemented fully could both limit human exposure to waterborne EDC pollution, as well as protect aquatic environments and species from EDC harm.