What Will We Learn from the Deep Water Horizon Report?

First and foremost the accident must be scrutinized carefully to prevent the deaths that occurred on the Deep Water Horizon. New rules and monitoring are very important to abate the dangers that oil well drilling presents. The people involved must know and practice more stringent safety designed to accomplish this abatement. The safety of the worker must be the goal of improvements.

Second the conditions that caused such an accident and created the environmental disaster need tight reviews and past performance should be an indicator of compliance or cause for suspending activities. The dangers of a possible blowout suggests that the equipment used needs to be carefully tested and upgraded if required.

A third outcome of the Horizon disaster is the amazing ability of mother nature to heal itself. Man can learn how mother nature used nature to hasten the healing (yes I know it is not complete) and perhaps use that knowledge to prepare for these disasters (bacteria, shoreline work, dispersion).

What really went wrong, The generators on board had a problem, it was known they had a problem. When the gas they struck leaked out into the atmosphere, it ignited due to the problem with the generators causing the entire explosion. I learned this first hand a couple months ago and whose generators were involved. The problem was MAINTENANCE! The entire problem did not rest with the MAINTENANCE people, it was the people sitting in an office not on site that said don't worry about it to the MAINTENANCE people, it WILL BE TAKEN CARE OF. Well it wasn't. Then they hit the pocket, gen-set was exposed and BOOM.

That was and is the real deal. Bean Counters are responsible and should BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. Walk the Line, (Plank). Time for fishing!

You just hit the nail on the head. We are in a race to the bottom with cheap labor countries and maintenance is seen as a cost to cut. Men like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford are called robber barons, but they built industries that outlived them. They left something tangible that was of benefit to future generations. CEO's now just rape, plunder, and escape with their golden parachutes. A lack of morality is what it is. Where's John Galt when you need him?

Nothing.

Oh there are certainly things that can and will be learned from this. We will learn that there will be new taskmasters to obey from the government in the form of regulators and new mountains of paperwork to comply with. We have learned that the entire offshore oil drilling industry is going to be held liable for the negligence of a few, and that the entire country is going to pay the price for the disaster. This extends to not just the cost incurred in regards to the financial impact, but the environmental impact of the dispersants used. That was in my opinion the worst application of a possible solution to the problem. The only purpose that served was to keep the oil slick form being visible on the surface. It did not look as bad as it actually was. Then there is the moratorium on new drilling by US companies waiting on further environmental studies while the government turns a blind eye to other countries drilling in the gulf with little or no oversight. We have learned that if you truly want a disaster to unfold, let the US government take charge of the operation. I learned that there is to now be more government controll not less, less freedom not more, and the overall end result will be nothing.

Cottonmouth1963,

Oh there are certainly things that can and will be learned from this. We will learn that there will be new taskmasters to obey from the government in the form of regulators and new mountains of paperwork to comply with. We have learned that the entire offshore oil drilling industry is going to be held liable for the negligence of a few, and that the entire country is going to pay the price for the disaster.

The only thing that will happen with all of the Government officials will be doing is taking money from those that create these disasters right into their pockets. Sure, we'll here this and that from the media, end of day, their pockets will be lined, their campaigns will be well funded and they will all be able to do it again. So what they have to pay millions, have you seen the spike in gas prices? I got a report a couple days ago with the price of oil to be $233.00 / barrel in the coming months. I also know The Saud-i's are not at all happy with this, but this is even out of their control. Greed is running everything in the oil industry and did anyone catch BP Solar is no longer? They closed shop and is auctioning off all of their equipment in the US. Take out funding for real maintenance and we will have many more disasters like Horizon.