more on the regulatory background for this mess, if regulatory you want to call it. this piece from today's wall st journal is about the minerals management service, a fine bunch of republican-instituted fellows who essentially tell the oil companies that it would be nice to be safe but don't do anything about practices that aren't....and cheerlead for "energy independence"---the way these missions get squared is by way of monitoring industry records about amounts of oil extracted and getting royalty payments. well, the other way they're squared is across a seemingly endless supply of handjobs for oil corporations. but read on:
U.S. Oil Regulator Ceded Safety Oversight to Drillers - WSJ.com