A new CPR white paper today argues that the BP oil spill and its attendant environmental and economic harm were entirely preventable, and indeed, would have been avoided had government regulators over the years been pushed and empowered by determined leadership and given sufficient resources to enforce the law.
The paper, Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made the BP Disaster Possible, and How the System Can Be Fixed to Avoid a Recurrence (press release), examines the performance of multiple regulatory agencies, most conspicuously, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), since reorganized and rebranded as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE).
Among the recommendations:
The report also focuses on the general importance of using the precautionary principle in decisions over risk, rather than essentially dismissing catastrophic outcomes as too unlikely to warrant serious consideration.
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Ben Somberg | September 30, 2010
A new CPR white paper today argues that the BP oil spill and its attendant environmental and economic harm were entirely preventable, and indeed, would have been avoided had government regulators over the years been pushed and empowered by determined leadership and given sufficient resources to enforce the law. The paper, Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory […]
Lena Pons | September 29, 2010
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) currently has a hold on Jacob Lew’s confirmation to become the next director of the Office of Management and Budget, and says she won't release it until the Obama Administration ends the moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling. She said that while Lew “clearly possesses the expertise necessary to serve…he […]
Celeste Monforton | September 28, 2010
Cross-posted from The Pump Handle. Is anybody else getting tired of hearing Obama Administration officials say “sunlight is the best disinfectant?” It was uttered again on Thursday (9/23) when the President’s regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein, was speaking at an event hosted by the Small Business Administration. His speech was loaded with all the transparency catch […]
Douglas Kysar | September 27, 2010
This post looks at two recent books by CPR Member Scholars in the context of the BP disaster and other recent regulatory failures: The People’s Agents and the Battle to Protect the American Public, by Rena Steinzor and Sidney Shapiro Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World, by Robert R. M. Verchick Does the […]
Matthew Freeman | September 27, 2010
In a CPRBlog post on Friday, 9/24, we inadvertantly referred to the Chesapeake Bay Program as the Chesapeake Bay Commission. The Program is a regional partnership of states and the District of Columbia working together to restore the Bay. The Commission is a group of 21 elected officials, appointees and citizen representatives conducting research, policymaking […]
Ben Somberg | September 24, 2010
Over at Grist, CPR Member Scholar Frank Ackerman and The Lomborg Deception author Howard Friel debunk Bjorn Lomborg’s new tack in their piece “Bjorn Lomborg: same skeptic, different day.”
Rena Steinzor | September 24, 2010
With more than 7,000 miles of coastline and thousands of stream and river miles and lake acres, the Chesapeake Bay is the crown jewel of the region’s natural resource heritage. And its value to the region’s economy is immense–$1 trillion according to one frequently cited estimate. But the ecological health of the Bay is tenuous. […]
Rena Steinzor | September 24, 2010
As expected, the Environmental Protect Agency issued its draft Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the Chesapeake Bay this afternoon – essentially a cap on total pollution in the Bay, as well as caps on each of 92 separate segments of the Bay. EPA also issued assessments of each of the affected states’ Watershed Implementation Plans […]
Ben Somberg | September 23, 2010
Two items of note tomorrow in the Chesapeake Bay realm: The EPA will publish the draft Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) – a cap on the total water pollution that can be discharged into the Bay. The TMDL will be open for public comment until November 8, 2010. The states (and DC) in […]