After the BP disaster, the President’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling recommended improvements needed to increase the safety of offshore drilling. Reporter David Hammer of WWLTV recently discovered that a training center — touted as central to the federal government’s efforts to improve offshore drilling safety after the 2010 BP disaster – never really got off the ground. Why? Hostility to reforms by Gulf of Mexico regulators – sadly no one at GRN finds this surprising. There has always been a too cozy relationship between regulators and the oil and gas industry and a resistance to holding the industry accountable. So, despite the worst oil disaster in U.S. history, the regulatory agency in charged with oversight of the industry is returning to business as usual. Check out David Hammer’s piece here. Cyn Sarthou is GRN’s Executive Director.
