(NEW YORK) MintPress — On April 20, 2010, the blowout and explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, damaging beaches in five southern states and devastating the Gulf Coast’s tourism and fishing industries. It took 87 days to cap the well, which was 5,000 feet below the surface and spewed some 4.9 million barrels of oil into gulf waters.
Today, partly because of nature and partly because of response measures, the gulf is open to fishing, beaches are, for the most part, clean and President Barack Obama has restored an oil exploration plan he put on hold following the spill.
Obama also appointed a seven-member National Oil Spill Commissions (OSC) to investigate the disaster, analyze its causes and effects, and propose steps needed to minimize such risks in the future. The Commission issued its final report, Deep Water, in January, 2011, with recommendations for changes in company behavior, reform of government oversight, and investment in research and technology.
Unlike many official task forces, the Commission decided to follow up and assess what, if any, progress was made. In its findings, issued in a new report this week, the Commission concluded that offshore drilling safety and oversight is still lacking, and that Congress is the biggest culprit.
OSC action
It was “encouraged by the progress being made” by the oil industry and regulators, said the Commission, but warned that “much more needs to be done” to improve safety and protection.
It harshly criticized Congress for failing to pass legislation needed to ensure regulators have the resources to properly monitor offshore drilling, guarantee there are sufficient resources for spill response and lift the $75 million liability cap for oil firms — BP, at least, ignored the cap.
“In just the past 10 months, at least three offshore oil and gas rigs around the world have experienced significant leaks, demonstrating again and again how risky this activity is and emphasizing the need for the types of controls and protections the Commission called for,” the report warned.
“The risks will only increase as drilling moves into deeper waters with harsher, less familiar environmental conditions.”
The Commission assigned grades to each of the primary actors based on what they have accomplished so far. The Obama administration earned a B, Industry a C+ and Congress a D.
The really bad news
As if that is not condemnation enough, the environmental group Oceana issued its own report, declaring that efforts taken to improve safety and oversight were “woefully inadequate.”
“Politics continues to triumph over common sense. It’s outrageous that so little progress has been made to make offshore drilling safer,” said Oceana’s senior campaign director Jacqueline Savitz.
“It appears that the government has done little more than require actions that were already being done voluntarily, even on the ill-fated rig — it’s as if they are letting the industry regulate itself.”
While new rules have been implemented, regulators have not yet addressed the ongoing problems of an insufficient number of inspectors, low fines for breaking the rules and fundamental deficiencies in the design of blowout preventers, Oceana concluded.
“Without stronger regulations, and better inspection and enforcement, oil companies will continue to put profits over safety and there will be more problems,” Savitz said. “It’s not a matter of whether there will be another oil spill, but when.”
BP reaches settlement
BP has paid $14 billion in cleanup costs and $6.3 billion in damages to individuals and businesses. It also agreed in March to pay an estimated $7.8 billion to resolve private plaintiffs’ claims for economic loss, property damage and injuries.
On Wednesday, lawyers for BP and the plaintiffs submitted the proposed settlement agreement to the federal judge in New Orleans who is overseeing the case. If approved, it would be one of the largest class-action settlements in U.S. history.
Although BP and the plaintiffs have “markedly different opinions” regarding the strength of their cases, neither expects “a complete victory” in litigation that could last ten years, they said in the papers they filed. The settlement is “more than fair, reasonable and adequate.”
The judge has not said when he will decide on approval of the agreement.
In the meantime, BP is also likely to owe between $5 billion and $20 billion in penalties under the Clean Water Act of 1972 and several billions for damages to natural resources under the Oil Pollution Act, which was signed into law in August 1990 following the Exxon Valdez disaster.
That catastrophe is a harsh reminder that the full toll of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe on the gulf and its marine life may not be known for years. The herring population of Alaska’s Prince William Sound didn’t plummet until three years after the Exxon Valdez spill.