After facing a president's wrath today over a drilling operation gone catastrophically awry, British Petroleum now has only two weeks before Mother Nature's annual hurricane season arrives in the Gulf of Mexico.

And mama is particularly high strung this year, say meteorologists, who predict worse-than-usual storm activity from June through November, when the season ends. The powerful storms could savage BP's efforts to stop the spill and clean up the many millions of gallons of spilled oil. As for the oil itself—spread from ocean floor to surface across a Delaware-sized area—churning hurricane winds could do things no one can predict, although some are trying <Update: Here's a New York Times look at the hurricane connection>. According to a report in Reuters:

Photo: USGS

<Update: Congress does not have to approve the administration's proposal to split the Minerals Management Service, The New York Times reports.>

The Obama administration finally is taking action to address the too-cozy relationship between the oil industry and the federal government's main oil drilling oversight agency. Interior Sec. Ken Salazar plans to ask Congress to split up the Minerals Management Service to keep royalties collection separate from oversight, according to the Associated Press.

The MMS, which issues drilling permits to oil companies and must oversee their drilling operations, also collects some $13 billion in royalties from those same companies. Clearly a conflict of interest, says an administration official.

Since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill started two weeks ago, the MMS has been criticized for letting British Petroleum get away with drilling under risky conditions without an adequate plan to prevent or clean up after a blowout. Similar arguments are being levied in federal court by Earthjustice to keep MMS from letting Shell Oil drill this summer in fragile Arctic Ocean waters.

A beluga whale surfaces in the Chukchi Sea. Photo: Florian Schulz, Visions of the Wild

Florian Schulz is a professional nature and wildlife photographer who is currently working with Earthjustice and Patagonia to present“Visions of the Arctic,” a stunning collection of photos showcasing the beauty of the Arctic and the threats the region faces from industrialization and climate change.

As I type this, having just returned from a two-week photography trip to the Arctic, my fingertips tingle, possibly from the lingering cold, or possibly from the trepidation that the tragedy of the Gulf oil spill will someday repeat itself in America's Arctic Ocean. Though President Obama has temporarily halted his plans to expand new offshore oil leasing until federal investigations into the cause of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion are completed, there are plans already underway to drill in America's Arctic Ocean as early as this summer.

Even worse, the government has signaled its approval for Shell Oil Company to begin its exploratory Arctic drilling without fully considering the impacts that an accident like the ongoing Gulf disaster would have on such a fragile ecosystem. What also has not been adequately considered is the increased difficulty of responding to such a disaster in the Arctic, which presents weather conditions incomparable to those found in the Gulf. During my treks through the Arctic wilderness, I encountered shifting ice sheets, bone-chilling temperatures, and areas of snow that were blowing so thick it traveled across the ground like a ghost of fog.

Sea gulls in surf at Virginia's Cape Henry. Photo: NOAA

<Update: AP reports that Interior Sec. Ken Salazar has halted the issuance of new offshore oil drilling leases nationwide until at least the end of the month. Here's how the New York Times sees Salazar's action playing out with reard to Shell Oil's plans to drill this summer in the Arctic.>

The Obama administration has been hinting for days that it might reverse course on its support for offshore oil drilling—and today it took the first real step in that direction. Shaken by the uncontrolled Gulf oil spill, the Interior Department has suspended plans for an oil and gas lease sale off the Virginia coastline.

Greenwire reports:

The move comes as the department seeks answers from investigations into the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig and the ongoing leak of hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil every day into the Gulf.