Friday, April 20, 2012

More regulations not less you dummies!

We interrupt the usual Friday beaver shots to bring this special announcement:
Washington, DC, April 19, 2012 — The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) announced today that its investigation into the April 20, 2010 Macondo well blowout, explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico is progressing, with two interim reports with findings and recommendations to be released this year. A final report is expected to be completed in early 2013.
Investigation findings to date indicate a need for companies and regulators to institute more rigorous accident prevention programs similar to those in use overseas. The CSB announcement was made approaching the second anniversary of the tragedy, which took eleven lives and caused the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history,

Process safety regulations and standards utilized by oil companies in refineries and process plants in the continental U.S. have a stronger major accident prevention focus, CSB investigators have determined. Unlike the U.S. offshore regulatory system, the “onshore” process safety requirements are more rigorous and apply both to operators and key contractors.

My comments: Having worked in hazardous waste during the Bush years I have to say it was a "cover your own ass" situation. Your primary concern was just to stay alive to work another day. Many laws were violated both in terms of worker safety and to the general public welfare. But I can honestly say that I did my best under the circumstances on both accounts. I am still here after all and nothing made the headline news.

5 comments:

BBC said...

I'm still here in spite of everything. Go figure.

Randal Graves said...

Man, I'm starving. You gonna eat those shrimp?

Demeur said...

Billy you're really a zombie and just don't know it.

Well then head down to Ray's I hear it's today's special Shrimp de la BP. He got them real cheap.

The Blog Fodder said...

The failure was not BP. The failure was government regulatory enforcement. BP will try to get away with whatever it can unless the regulators keep a firm hand on their throats. Having said that, it does not excuse criminal negligence on the part of BP.
And I agree with those who say that people should be going to jail over this

S.W. Anderson said...

Straight-by-the-book regulators would probably stand a better chance getting Mafia debt collectors to eschew violence than get major oil companies to let rigorous safety practices cramp their insatiable appetite for profits. To say it's an uphill battle, especially in the post Bush years, it putting it mildly.

Even if that wasn't the case, regulators can't be on every rig or drilling project every day. Nor should they have to be. It was BP's responsibility to put safety first. Instead, the company's actions and decisions were beyond criminally negligent. Absolutely, people should be in prison right now for their role in that man-made disaster that cost 11 people their lives.