From Yahoo News:
“BP had 760 safety violations in the past five years and paid $373 million in fines, Sullivan said. By contrast, Sunoco and ConocoPhillips each had eight safety violations and ExxonMobil just one, Sullivan said.”
My question is why did it take an ecological disaster for the various U.S. regulatory agencies to take notice of this? Where was OSHA, the MMS, etc for the last five years?
For a quick overview of likely contributors to the disaster:
- Waivers and exceptions granted by MMS
- MMS waived the NEPA-required environmental impact analysis on April 6, 2009
- MMS inspected the well at least 16 fewer times than required by its own policy
- In 2003, MMS determined acoustic switches (remote control shut-off switches) are too costly to be required
- MMS waived the required blowout preventer testing while the well was out of control and once the test was performed, it was performed at a lower pressure than previously tested
- MMS waived the NEPA-required environmental impact analysis on April 6, 2009
- Questionable castings and blowout preventer
- On June 22, 2009, BP waived internal safety policies regarding well castings despite concerns by BP engineers
- BP was aware that the blowout preventer was faulty
- On June 22, 2009, BP waived internal safety policies regarding well castings despite concerns by BP engineers
- Who’s in charge?
- The well is owned by BP
- The rig is owned by Transocean
- Haliburton owned the cementing job (experts explain the cementing of the shaft is a likely point of failure)
- The well is owned by BP
Now I’m far from an expert on oil drilling, but from what has been discovered so far, it appears to me that BP is not solely to blame for this disaster and various agencies of the U.S. government have at the very least been negligent in their oversight duties if not outright complicit.