As long ago as last June, BP engineers were concerned that the metal casing might collapse under high pressure, and officials knew the casing was "the riskier of two options."
Wouldn't another option have been: don't do the drilling?
There was also concern about the blow-out protector, which was tested only at lower levels of pressure . . . . because they feared it wouldn't work at higher pressure levels.
Yet Mark Hafle, senior drilling engineer at BP, testified last week that the company had not taken risks. “Nobody believed there was going to be a safety issue. . . . "
That's the problem. Despite clear evidence in their own documents that there were serious risks, "Nobody believed there was going to be a safety issue."
Is anybody reminded of Alan Greenspan's infamous line: "Nobody could have predicted" the collapse of the financial system?
It's time these movers and shakers start paying attention to the people who DO see the risks, who DO predict disaster. There is a reason to have a (relatively) disinterested government agency oversee the risks, because money-making machines can't be trusted to act in the common good if it costs them money. They're designed to follow the bottom line, and this naturally leads to their taking more risks. The problem we've had, besides deregulation, is that agencies have been infiltrated or corrupted so that they are not disinterested -- but often bought and paid for by those they're suppose to regulate. This seems to have been the case in the Minerals and Mining agency.
That should be the lesson learned in all this. There is a good reason for regulations in this complex, interrelated world we live in.
If BP was drilling for oil in its own pond, that's one thing. But BP has fouled the nation's pond. And it wasn't just his own bank account that Alan Greenspan messed up.
Ralph
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