leaving safety to the market
From today’s Wall Street Journal (Ben Casselman and Guy Chazan, Disaster Plans Lacking at Deep Rigs):
The Minerals Management Service, the government agency that oversees offshore drilling, in recent years moved away from requiring specific safety measures in offshore drilling and instead set broad performance goals that it was up to the industry to meet.
…
In joint MMS-Coast Guard hearings into the Deepwater Horizon accident, Michael Saucier, an MMS official, testified that the agency “highly encouraged,” but didn’t require, companies to have back-up systems to trigger blowout preventers in case of an emergency.
“Highly encourage? How does that translate to enforcement?” Coast Guard Capt. Hung Nguyen, who is co-chairing the investigation, asked at the hearings.
“There is no enforcement,” Mr. Saucier replied.
That seems to about cover it.
David :: May.18.2010 :: House Red: Politics & Current Affairs :: No Comments »