Sylvia V. Baca

Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary for Land and Minerals Management

Why She Matters

For15 years, Baca has dealt with land, mineral and environmental issues inside the Interior Department (DOI) and in the corporate world. She served under President Clinton as the DOI's deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management and returned to the department in 2009 in the same position.

At DOI, Baca helps regulate on-shore drilling and has responsibility for parts of the Minerals Management Service, which after the spring 2010 BP oil spill was renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and is intended to be split into several parts.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: BP plc, General Manger for Social Investment Programs and Strategic Partnerships; Director of Global Health, Safety, Environment & Emergency Response; Vice President for Health Safety and Environment (2001-2009); Interior Department, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management (2000-2001)
Hometown: Sante Fe, NM

Alma Mater: University of New Mexico, B.U.S., 1981; University of New Mexico, M.P.A., 1989
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Path to Power

Baca's career in government began in New Mexico. She went to school in Albequerque, at the University of New Mexico, and earned a master's in public administration.

In New Mexico, she held a series of positions on the state and city level that focused on the government's spending. She oversaw a minority and small-business development program, worked on the staff of the state's Legislative Finance Committee, which offers recommendations on budget issues and oversees performance audits, and was the director of finance and management for the city of Albuquerque.

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Clinton Interior Department

In 1995, Baca joined the Interior Department. Over the next five years, she developed a reputation as a skilled manager and was called upon to pinch-hit when leadership positions in the department opened up. She ran the Bureau of Land Management for eight months in 1997, and in 1998 she became acting assistant secretary, a position she would hold for two years. (In the waning days of President Clinton's second term, she was appointed to the position permanently.)

During her first stint at Interior, Baca worked on issues like land use and on energy infrastructure, including the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

Her work with the Minerals Management Service also touched on issues like "royalty-in-kind" pilot programs. These programs allowed companies to drill for oil or gas on federal lands while compensating the government through royalty payments; the Government Accountability Office later found them to be of questionable benefit to taxpayers.

British Petroleum America

After President Clinton left office, Baca joined the private sector. At BP America, she worked as vice president of health, safety and environment, where she focused on greening the energy company's work: "At BP we believe energy and environmental policy go hand-in-hand," she told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee in 2002. "We are committed to achieving an appropriate balance between the two."

Baca joined the company just as it was trying to project a more environmentally-friendly image.

In 2000, BP rolled out the green-and-yellow sunburst that it says represents "diverse forms of energy."

Baca continued to rise in the company's hierarchy. By 2004, she was in charge of health, safety and environment issues for the company's shipping arm, where she was given a "mandate to raise awareness of environmental issues in the organization," the company reported. She worked on problems like cargo shipping; during her tenure, BP decided to use its own ships to carry cargo, because they had a better record on injuries and environmental damage, the company said at the time. By the time Baca left the company, she was managing the American branch's social-investment programs.

When a Democratic administration returned to Washington, Baca returned to the Interior Department, in the same position she had occupied before her stint in the private sector.

The Issues

Baca's work in both the public and private sectors puts her at the crossroads of exactly the kinds of issues facing energy regulators: how to balance energy extraction with safety and environmental concerns. Her work with BP also raised questions about the role of former private-sector employees in the Obama-era regulatory system.

Revolving Door

At Interior, Baca is barred from regulating or overseeing BP, her former employer, and DOI has made it clear that Baca is responsible for on-shore drilling, not the off-shore drilling that led BP to spill millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf Coast in 2010.

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The Network

Baca served under Clinton Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. While Baca was at BP Shipping and at BP America, those branches of the company were run by Bob Malone, a former BP executive who is a director at Halliburton and at Peabody Energy Corporation.

Some of Baca's former employees are also still working on energy and environmenta; issues. Mike Pool, the deputy director for operations at Interior's Bureau of Land Management, was Baca's special assistant during her first stint at DOI. Kim Harb, a senior counseler at BLM, now works for the National Oceanic Industries Association, which represents energy interests in the outer continental shelf.

Campaign Contributions

Baca donated $2,300 to then-Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. In 2006, she supported Jim Baca (no relation), a former BLM commissioner and former Albuquerque mayor, in a New Mexico race for Commissioner of Public Lands.

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