Oil Regulation, Policy Progress Lacking One Year After Deepwater Horizon Disaster

COMMENTARY | When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in a fireball, killing 11 workers, no one knew how bad the spill would be and no one understood the level of negligence. In the following year, we have learned three companies involved all had massive safety issues.

With gas prices surging and political pressure mounting, 11 new permits for deep water drilling have been issued to companies planning to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. What safety and regulation improvements have been made, and what is the current political paradigm?

Blowout preventer safety

The massive nature of the spill, spewing more than 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, could have been mitigated substantially by an effective blowout preventer. The preventer associated with Deepwater Horizon was doomed from the start. Any potential design flaw was amplified by the sheer force of the oil and gas rushing upward. A pipe was bent out of alignment before the device had a chance to work.

When it comes to making them better, all we have are assurances that progress has been made and will be an ongoing process.

BP CEO Robert Dudley promised to "strengthen safety," while his company has filed suit against the maker of the blowout preventer in question, Cameron International. Environmental groups are not satisfied.

"We're being told don't worry, we have these new safety standards. But when you look at what it is, what they have to prove, it's not very satisfying," said Jackie Savitz, director of pollution campaigns at Oceana, a conservation group opposed to offshore drilling.

Some progress made with containment technology

Once the blowout preventer failed and a massive spill was inevitable, the next failure came with containment. There wasn't sufficient technology available to quickly deal with huge amounts of oil spilling from deep wells.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich went to Houston in February to view the progress of a containment system meant to plug oil spills.

A new company calling itself the Marine Well Containment Co. said it has developed a system that can operate at depths of 8,000 feet and process up to 60,000 barrels a day. If that number is correct, such technology could have made the spill much more manageable and less damaging to the environment.

Not enough regulation inspectors are working

Although Congress has allocated $47 million more for the current fiscal year to be used to hire and train more inspectors, currently there are only 60 overseeing operations in the Gulf. That's up from the 56 working when Deepwater Horizon exploded, but not nearly the level the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement wants.

That organization was formed out of the Mineral Management Service. Because the agency is still going through formative phases, there is no training director hired as of yet. The education of inspectors with regard to what to look for is an important part of reform that still needs to be be accomplished.

Clearly, there are many issues still needing to be resolved before deep sea wells proceed too much further. Congress and the Obama administration must work past partisan hype and the urge to "drill baby, drill' to ensure proper safeguards are in place.