In the hours before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th, BP received and ignored warning signs that something was seriously wrong. In a memo [pdf] released last night, the House committee investigating the disaster confirmed that BP made a "fundamental mistake" in continuing operations after the problems were detected. The memo doesn't say who specifically made the call to keep drilling after the problem was found, but we can just about picture the guy. BP's investigation has "also raised concerns about the maintenance history, modification, inspection, and testing of the [rig]."
The Times has published a provocative article looking at the links between BP and President Obama’s energy secretary Steven Chu. Three years ago Chu received the bulk of a $500 million grant from BP to develop alternative energy sources, and Chu selected BP’s chief scientist Steven E. Koonin to be his under-secretary. The White House points out that the Energy Department "doesn’t have jurisdiction over the oil spill," but on May 12th Obama sent Dr. Chu to BP’s command center in Houston to meet with top engineers and scientists. Remember what Chu said after walking out of the meeting? "Things are looking up." And we're winning hearts and minds, too, right?
The catastrophe has also shined a spotlight on the incompetent Minerals Management Service, the federal agency in charge of regulating the oil and gas industry. Slate reports that bureaucrats there "let industry officials fill out their own inspection sheets and then traced it over in pen, according to an inspector general's report. Inspectors accepted gifts, like tickets to sports events and pricey dinners, from oil companies. They watched porn on their work computers. (Perhaps they were simply researching the 'junk shot.')"
The Interior Department is rushing to complete more stringent regulations governing safety and environmental practices, but the Times reports that "drilling companies objected to the new rules, saying they were overly prescriptive and would be costly to comply with." Cue the tiny violins. Meanwhile, BP is running tests to decide whether to go through with the "top-kill" plan to choke off the leak with mud, followed by cement. The technique has been used successfully to stop other spills such as the oil flooding out of sabotaged Kuwaiti oil wells, but never attempted at such a depth. If it doesn't work, experts fear it could actually make the spill worse by causing a new leak or tearing a new hole in the leaking well pipe. You will be able to watch it live, whenever they do it.
