Emerging oil rig evidence shows lack of regulation

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JEFF DONN, H. JOSEF HEBERT and MITCH WEISS

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first firm evidence of what likely caused the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil blowout - a devastating sequence of equipment failures - drives home a central unsettling point about America's oil industry: key safety features at tens of thousands of U.S. offshore rigs are barely regulated.

Wednesday's hearings by congressional and administration panels - in Washington and in Louisiana - laid out a checklist of unseen breakdowns on largely unregulated aspects of well safety that appear to have contributed to the April 20 blowout: a leaky cement job, a loose hydraulic fitting, a dead battery.

The trail of problems highlights the reality that, even as the U.S. does more deepwater offshore drilling in a quest for domestic oil, some key safety components are left almost entirely to the discretion of the companies doing the work.

It remains unclear what, if anything, Congress or the Obama administration may do to address these regulatory deficiencies.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100513/D9FLT8Q00.html

[lunatica]

1. If they're this sloppy with one oil rig guess what?

They're sloppy with all of them.

[baldguy]

2. The Deepwater Horizon disaster was caused by REPUBLICAN POLICIES.

The mortgage/lending crisis was caused by REPUBLICAN POLICIES.

The stock market crash was caused by REPUBLICAN POLICIES.

The auto industry crisis was caused by REPUBLICAN POLICIES.

How many more lives and dollars will be lost before we get rid of those policies?

[BonnieJW]

4. That's all true, but

how many Democratic legislators let them get away with it????? Even if we were outnumbers in Congress during part of the bush years, they should have been screaming in the street over all these dangerous moves. It was clearly apparent that all of this was going to cause harm to the American people.

[Downwinder]

3. You mean, Corporate persons can''t be self regulating. What

a surprise. Must be all of these immigrant Corporate persons. Somebody check their papers.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Rethug policy = "Caveat Emptor!" n/t

[Bragi]

6. Of course there was a lack of regulation, but so what?

Let's ask ourselves this question:

If deep drilling for oil in permitted, is there some regulatory fix that will stop just about every every coastline in the world from eventually being fouled by oil?

Personally, I think it is insane to believe we can extract oil from deeper and deeper below the ocean floor, seemingly forever, while reasonably expecting that incidents of the sort now happening in the Gulf won't reoccur time and again.

The two real choices we have here are pretty clear: allow off-shore deep drilling and accept that our oceans and much of our coastlines will eventually be fouled; or stop deep water drilling to protect the oceans and shorelines.

Calling for tough regulation is simply an attempt to pretend that there is a third choice from the two above. This third choice is just a fantasy, but I have no doubt that it will sell politically, and that we will end up eventually despoiling the oceans, just as we are now knowingly ruining our overall environment with CO2 emissions.

Have a nice day!

- B