Macondo one year on

摘要

Within months of the April 20, 2010, BP Macondo blowout and oil spill, the worst in US history, Congress was debating bills that would have applied the brakes to what some had charged was a runaway regulatory system that for years issued offshore drilling permits with little consideration of risk. The bills, none of which ever made it to President Barack Obama's desk, would have mandated safer blowout preventers, required third-party certification of well designs and tripled the time regulators could take to consider company exploration plans. One year later, the only spill-related bills in active consideration by Congress are part of a Republican push to hit the gas pedal on offshore leasing, requiring new sales off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and forcing regulators to speed the approval of Gulf drilling permits.