The Dead Zone (or, BP and the Oil Well That Keeps on Giving)

[Crazed Rabbit]

I read a detailed article in the Wall St Journal, already linked in the thread by Hosakawa Tito, and it seems BP made a series of decisions based on reducing the time to completion that reduced the safety margin. Taking more time to put in better safeguards, it seems, could well have avoided the whole mess. So it could well be that people have died, and the rest of the oil industry that doesn't screw up will be subject to a bunch more regulations again because BP wanted to do things cheaper and faster, plus this time there's massive ecological damage.

Of course it won't be until the US Chemical Safety Board issues it's report (months from now; they write thorough reports) that we'll really know what happened and why.

CR