Talking to people about the Deepwater Horizon, often a response has been “how can something like that happen in the US.”
Exactly that question is being forensically picked over by lawyers and Congressional investigators and the answers are increasingly looking unpalatable.
But one thing for sure it could not happen without the raw power of big oil. [...]

A BP presentation to investors from March 2010 – a month before Deepwater – is doing the rounds on the net after being picked up by Propublica.
In fact the presentation to analysts is on BP’s own website.
The presentation shows how so much has changed for BP since the disaster – and if nothing else how [...]

The industry’s PR response from Deepwater is shaping up nicely. This is the industry message:
We will give you improved safety and you give us resumed drilling. The Gulf of Mexico represents energy security and jobs for the boys to boot.
The tar sands of Canada also represent energy security, so if you let us build a [...]

Did we get any real answers from Tony Hayward yesterday when he appeared before an influential Congressional cmmittee? No
Did we get the truth from Hayward, currently depicted as the most hated man in America? No
All we got from Tony Hayward was stone-walling, evasion and a deadpan panto of going through the motions.

Twice in the last several days we’ve been reminded of the uphill struggle we face in the US to separate oil and state.  First, on Tuesday, the US Senate actually defeated a proposal that would have eliminated some oil industry subsidies.  Then, earlier today, Representative Joe Barton actually apologized to BP’s Tony Hayward for establishing [...]