Another quote from the Deepwater Horizon report:
“To assure human safety and environmental protection, regulatory oversight of leasing, energy exploration, and production require reforms even beyond those significant reforms already initiated since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Fundamental reform will be needed in both the structure of those in charge of regulatory oversight and their internal decision-making process to ensure their political autonomy, technical expertise, and their full consideration of environmental protection concerns”
The US regulators perhaps got caught napping. The MCA have woken up to the risks with STS but are they in a position to regulate the process effectively from Southampton? Can they be sure that the measure the CFPA say they will pit in place are actually put in place? Who’s checking? Answer: no one. Does that give us confidence when our own environmental protection agency have no power in the regulatory process of a potential high risk procedure happening on our own doorstep? The problem is, it only becomes an issue when something goes horribly wrong.
