How the Biggest, Most Expensive Oil Spill In History Changed Almost Nothing

merbs writes: Tthe biggest oil spill in US history, despite incurring the largest environmental fine on the books—$18.7 billion, handed down this month—has done almost nothing to change the nation's relationship to oil. Five years after the spill, and, by BP's count, $54 billion in projected total expenses, there have been no serious legislative efforts to improve the oversight or regulation of the United States' still-expanding offshore oil operations. Public opinion of deepwater drilling barely budged during the ordeal; today, a majority of Americans favor doing even more of it.

Comments

Country run by oil barons does nothing!!!

[Joce640k]

Country run by oil barons does nothing when there's an oil problem!?!

Film at 11.

Re:Country run by oil barons does nothing!!!

[Joce640k]

PS: Fracking is being given a totally free pass too!

Re:Country run by oil barons does nothing!!!

[tiberus]

And investment in [,,,] clean-nuclear [...]

Clean nuclear, doesn't nuclear fuel have a pesky rather long term disposal issue? Granted I'd never heard of using Thorium as a fuel before but, I don't get a warm fuzzy about the use of 'er' in cleaner and safer.

Re:Country run by oil barons does nothing!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Since oil is environmentally harmful, removing it from the environment is exactly what we should do. So, I think we should continue to drill for oil, extract it from the environment, and then of course use it up so there is no risk of it re-entering the environment.

Plus, I like cheap power.

Re:Country run by oil barons does nothing!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he should have said almost clean. Generation IV nuclear reactors don't solve the waste problem but they dig into. They produce much less waste and can use waste from older reactors. The waste that is produced has a greatly reduced half-life as compared to current reactor waste. The big bonus is they have a really hard time melting down since they don't need a continuous water supply to cool. It's what we should have been investing in until renewables are advanced enough to take over.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_IV_reactor

Re:Country run by oil barons does nothing!!!

[whathappenedtomonday]

Just bury the waste. Well, if it is that easy, why does no country in the world have a permanent solution for their waste? If just burying it is good enough, why does nobody do it? Hint: it's hard to do it safely, given the half life periods involved, since we're talking about 10,000 to 1,000,000 years, and I'd rather not touch those 500 years you mention, because you pulled that number out of a smelly place. Also, the article is talking about the problems arising from handling crude oil. Looks like we can't even handle that safely enough. What makes you think we can handle nuclear waste safely for long periods of time? Just do x and y won't be a problem. I just love that approach. We might discuss nuclear if it weren't for such utter "rational" BS.

Sure, I favor doing more of it

[bondsbw]

Public opinion of deepwater drilling barely budged during the ordeal; today, a majority of Americans favor doing even more of it.

In light of all the rockets that have exploded and astronauts killed over the years, I favor doing even more space exploration.

Just because something is unsafe, doesn't mean I want to stop doing it. Sometimes it's worth doing so long as it can be done more safely.

Re:Business as usual under the US Gov't

[XxtraLarGe]

We've had plenty of significant events happen in the past couple decades. One and only one - 9/11 - changed how the government does anything.

Yeah, and it only changed how the government did anything by making things worse. Now we're subjected to illegal searches, detainment, etc. by an incompetent bureaucracy that has stopped exactly 0 terrorist plots and misses over 95% of banned items in its screenings. Hopefully these aren't the kinds of changes you'd like to see with the oil industry as well.