The President has spoken:
NEW ORLEANS: President Barack Obama yesterday threatened legal action against those to blame for unleashing the nation’s worst ever oil spill, as BP once again battled to stop the six-week leak.
“If our laws were broken leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledge is that we will bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe and the people of the Gulf region,” Obama vowed. [source] ... June 2, 2010Will he break his vow?
An examination by The New York Times highlights the chasm between the oil industry’s assertions about the reliability of its blowout preventers and a more complex reality. It reveals that the federal agency charged with regulating offshore drilling, the Minerals Management Service, repeatedly declined to act on advice from its own experts on how it could minimize the risk of a blind shear ram failure.
It also shows that the Obama administration failed to grapple with either the well-known weaknesses of blowout preventers or the sufficiency of the nation’s drilling regulations even as it made plans this spring to expand offshore oil exploration. [source] June 21, 2010Walt Kelly had it right.