Hindsight

NEW ORLEANS—It seemingly always takes a major catastrophe to cull truth from industry.

Banks have to collapse and be bailed out before risky lending practices are exposed. Workers must lose their lives in collapsed coal mines before it's revealed that safety regulations are not up to code. Schoolyard massacres must take place before the gun industry is questioned about how sales are conducted. And now a massive oil spill must occur before it becomes evident that offshore exploratory drilling was taken extremely lightly by both the companies involved and the very agency charged with ensuring the industry’s safe conduct.

New revelations emerged every day this week from the corporations who own the equipment and rights—thus, one would expect, the permits and expertise—to drill a mile below the ocean’s surface and fix any problems, suggesting there was a fair amount of negligence and guesswork involved in their work:  

Read more of Jon Bowermasters article in The Current here