Emerging oil rig evidence shows lack of regulation

[niceypoo]

WASHINGTON — The first firm evidence of what likely caused the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil blowout — a devastating sequence of equipment failures — drives home a central unsettling point about America's oil industry: key safety features at thousands of U.S. offshore wells are barely regulated.

Wednesday's hearings by congressional and administration panels — in Washington and in Louisiana — laid out a checklist of unseen breakdowns on largely unregulated aspects of well safety that appear to have contributed to the April 20 blowout: a leaky cement job, a loose hydraulic fitting, a dead battery.

The trail of problems highlights the reality that, even as the U.S. does more deepwater offshore drilling in a quest for domestic oil, some key safety components are left almost entirely to the discretion of the companies doing the work.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9FM1MRO0

I remember Bush bragging about voluntary environmental regulations. This spill is the end result of such policies. So much for the markets regulating themselves. American style cowboy capitalism is a joke.