Energy Regulation Outsourced to Oil Companies

[Toro]

The small U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling doesn't write or implement most safety regulations, having gradually shifted such responsibilities to the oil industry itself for more than a decade.

Instead, the Minerals Management Service—now caught up in the crisis of the Deepwater Horizon rig that for weeks has sent crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico—sets broad performance goals for the industry. Oil producers and drilling companies are then free to decide for themselves how to meet those goals, industry executives and former regulators say.

A Wall Street Journal examination of the MMS's track record found several instances of the agency identifying potential safety problems and then either not requiring follow-up or relying on the industry to craft a solution. In some cases, the industry didn't do its part.

The Journal also found that the safety record of U.S. offshore drilling compares unfavorably, in terms of deaths and serious accidents, to other major oil-producing countries. Over the past five years, an offshore oil worker in the U.S. was more than four times as likely to be killed than a worker in European waters, and 23% more likely to sustain an injury, according to International Association of Drilling Contractors data, which is adjusted for man-hours worked. ...

U.S. Oil Regulator Ceded Safety Oversight to Drillers - WSJ.com

 

[Ravi]

Yes, I think we all know that now. Hopefully this disaster will change that...but I doubt it.

Regulation = communism, remember?

 

[Care4all]

so much for letting private industries police themselves....that hopefully will be recognized as a failure.

Is this the same agency that was found having sex and using drugs with the Oil Lobbyists hired back in 2005?

 

[Care4all]

FOUR TIMES LIKELY to die for our Oil industry workers compared to other regions drilling oil, that is a huge problem with safety, here in the USA.

 

[Old Rocks]

Once again it has been shown that the corperate mentality cannot be trusted to do what is neccessary to insure their workers safety. They cannot be trusted to do what it neccessary to protect the environment. In fact, they can be trusted on ly to follow stringent regulations if those regulations have some real teeth. As in upper management people go to jail when their negligence and greed result in the deaths of workers, or the despoiling of the environment.

The CEO of Massey should be facing 29 counts of negligent homicide. The CEO of BP should be facing grand larceny charges for what the negligence of that company has taken from the residents of the Gulf states.

 

[Care4all]

Once again it has been shown that the corperate mentality cannot be trusted to do what is neccessary to insure their workers safety. They cannot be trusted to do what it neccessary to protect the environment. In fact, they can be trusted on ly to follow stringent regulations if those regulations have some real teeth. As in upper management people go to jail when their negligence and greed result in the deaths of workers, or the despoiling of the environment.

The CEO of Massey should be facing 29 counts of negligent homicide. The CEO of BP should be facing grand larceny charges for what the negligence of that company has taken from the residents of the Gulf states.

11 workers were killed on this rig blow up too...

 

[Old Rocks]

The only reason that I did not include that, is that the cause of the blowup may have been unforeseen clathrates. Clathrates at a depth not usually associated with them.

That does not let BP off the hook for the failure to put in the valve that would have prevented the present situation.