"Oil Spill: US Failing To Tighten Ecological Oversight, Say Activists"

"The Obama administration waived environmental reviews for 26 new offshore drilling projects even as the BP oil disaster spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, environmental activists said today. ...

With the spill still unchecked and spreading to Alabama's beaches, there was renewed focus on oversight procedures that allowed BP and Transocean to drill without backup plans in place.

The Centre for Biological Diversity said that even after the disaster, the Obama administration did not tighten its oversight of offshore drilling. An investigation by the respected environmental group revealed that since 20 April, when an explosion the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers, 27 new offshore drilling projects have been approved by the Mineral Management Service (MMS) the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing extraction of oil, gas and other minerals.

All but one project was granted similar exemptions from environmental review as BP. Two were submitted by the UK firm, and made the same claims about oil-rig safety and the implausibility of a spill damaging the environment, the centre said."

Suzanne Goldenberg reports for the Guardian May 9, 2010.

See Also:

"For BP, a History of Spills and Safety Lapses" (New York Times)

"BP Has a Long Record of Legal, Ethical Violations" (McClatchy)

"Federal Regulators Haven't Kept up With Oil Drilling Expansion" (Los Angeles Times)

"Minimizing the Risk of a Blowout" (Green/NYT)