There's a small village in my birth country, that's for intents and purposes is an offshore paradise for companies, especially those, who set up shop before the EU ended derogation on establishing new companies. For one fiscal year, shortly before the tragedy, one such company was listed there, which owned Deepwater Horizon, it was a Triton company, a daughter of Transocean. In that fiscal year, they made 462 million dollars from leasing out the rig.
Mike is right, several oversights were made, some even years before the tragedy. Actually the very reason to relocate the intellectual license from my motherland to Switzerland was because the rig was on its way out, and it had it last 3 years lease with a new operator. It doesn't lessen BP's blame, but it should have diverted attention toward American companies being owned offshore to avoid taxation and liability.
The reason I'm less hopeful is because I've seen the effects of discarding environmental protection and landmark protection in favor of expedited construction, and especially in the oil business I remember Palin's pledge to drill for oil everywhere. This disaster halted it for a while, and by while I mean 5 years. Meanwhile in the both Dakotas there are like 8 environmental agents who oversee oil drillings, and let's just say, they're very lenient with the danger factors to human life and the environment. Heck, them being just 8 people is also because of the oil industry, even if they're the most pristine guardians, it's physically impossible to track all, so most accidents are settled out of court.
I live in the Gordius Apartment Complex, my interior designer was M.C. Escher.
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