Just Remember What Rand Paul Said

“I think it’s part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it’s always got to be somebody’s fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen.”

And people get upset when the government doesn’t react quickly enough–even when our government, or anyone for that matter, doesn’t have the capacity to deal with a spill of thei magnitude. Oddly enough, people like Rand Paul would fight against increased regulations, and would push against clean energy policy.

Marshall Islands, Not U.S., Had Primary Responsibility for Deepwater Horizon Safety and Inspections

The Los Angeles Times has a fascinating report today that illustrates just how complicated a federal response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is. According to the report, the oil rig “was built in South Korea. It was operated by a Swiss company under contract to a British oil firm. Primary responsibility for safety and other inspections rested not with the U.S. government but with the Republic of the Marshall Islands — a tiny, impoverished nation in the Pacific Ocean.”

The article quotes James Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat and member of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, who pointed to weak inspection standards as playing a major factor in the initial explosion that killed 11 men and has now spilled an estimated 100 million gallons.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-inspection-20100615,0,7349376.story

BP Knew All Along?

From the New York Times this morning:

“Internal BP documents, including an e-mail message calling the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon a ‘nightmare,’ show a pattern of risky choices made to save time and money in the weeks before the disastrous April 20 blowout, according to a letter sent to the oil company by the leaders of a House committee on Monday.”

The article continues:

“Taken together, the documents offer the strongest case yet that BP bears much of the responsibility for the catastrophic explosion that killed 11 workers and the still-unchecked leaking of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.”