President Obama’s oil spill commission has concluded that BP and Halliburton were both guilty of contributing to the cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which resulted in the worst oil spill in US history.
The commission concluded that short-cuts are an industry-wide practice that will result in continuing oil spill disasters, unless new, stiffer regulations are put in place.
A 48 page final report released Wednesday found that BP failed to test the cement plug Halliburton used to seal the exploratory Macondo well. The flawed cement mix failed, caused the rig to explode on April 20, 2010, and kill eleven crew members, dump nearly 5 million barrels of oil, and 2 million gallons of chemical dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico.
The problem with preventing further oil spill disasters lies in the plans of the new republican congress. Incoming chairman of the government Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrel Issa of California, has stated that he plans to roll back and remove as many government regulations as he can, including those that regulate the oil industry.
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