U.S. proposes reforms of offshore oil drilling
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The White House-appointed oil spill commission on Tuesday released its final report on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, proposing comprehensive reforms of both government and industry practices to overhaul U.S. offshore drilling safety and reduce the chances of similar disaster in the future.
The seven-member National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling found that the Deepwater Horizon disaster was foreseeable and preventable. Errors and misjudgments by three major oil drilling companies -- BP, Halliburton, and Transocean -- played key roles in the disaster. Government regulation was ineffective, and failed to keep pace with technology advancements in offshore drilling.
"Our investigation shows that a series of specific and preventable humans and engineering failures were the immediate course of the disaster," said Commission Co-Chair William Reilly in a statement.
"As drilling pushes into ever deeper and riskier waters where more of America's oil lies, only systemic reforms of both government and industry will prevent a similar, future disaster," he said.
The commission recommended that the government establish an independent agency responsible for regulating all aspects of offshore drilling safety to make the U.S. the international leader on this issue.
"Only a truly independent federal safety agency -- totally separated from leasing practices and politics -- can provide certainty that the regulators do not again become captive to the industry," said Commission Co-Chair Bob Graham.
The panel calls for expanded drilling regulations, increasing budgets and training for the federal agency that regulates offshore drilling; increasing the liability cap for damages when companies drill offshore; and lending more weight to scientific opinions by other federal scientists in decisions about drilling. It also called for an industry-led safety institute, similar to the one created by nuclear power producers after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.
"These reforms are a national priority, and must be treated as such by the Administration, the Congress, and the industry," said Reilly.
BP's Macondo well ruptured after an oil rig exploded and sank on April 20, 2010, spewing up to 4.9 million of barrels of oil into the ocean for nearly three months in the world's worst accidental marine spill.
U.S. President Barack Obama established the presidential panel on May 22 to determine the root causes of the disaster, evaluate containment and clean up responses, and advise the President and the nation about how future energy exploration should take place responsibly in more challenging offshore and deepwater areas.
