BP spent years battling federal regulators over how many layers of safeguards would be needed to prevent a deepwater well from this type of accident. One area of immediate concern was the lack of a remote system that would have allowed workers to clamp shut Deepwater Horizon's wellhead so it would not continue to gush oil.

BP objected to what it called "extensive, prescriptive regulations" proposed in new rules to toughen safety standards. "We believe industry's current safety and environmental statistics demonstrate that the voluntary programs…continue to be very successful."

That was one in a series of clashes between the industry and federal regulators that began during the Clinton administration. In 2000, the federal agency that oversaw oil rig safety issued a safety alert that called added layers of backup "an essential component of a deepwater drilling system." The agency said operators were expected to have multiple layers of protection to prevent a spill. The industry aggressively lobbied against an additional layer of protection known as an "acoustic system," saying it was too costly. There was a big debate under the Bush administration whether or not to require additional oil drilling safeguards but decided not to require any additional mandatory safeguards, believing the industry would be motivated to do it themselves - that obviously wasn't the case




Yes of course, it's all governments and those evil unionists fault this happened.

Then how about BP's Texas City Refinery explosion in 2005? I mean honestly, this is getting kind of ridiculous, how many more of these disasters do we need until we figure out, gee, regulations aren't exactly a bad thing. As for BP paying a price for their actions, I'll believe it until I see it. Personally I think they're going to fight tooth in nail in the courts, I doubt we'll see any punitive damages being paid out until 2020 if we're lucky, and hopefully that also include the interest.