There were signs of trouble in oil two years before the BP spill.
Retrospective find of the month:
In the June 2010 TAR Top Story on the BP oil spill, I wrote: “As so often happens, this tragedy may be a result, at least indirectly, of multiple addicts. An Interior Department report alleges that staff members of the Minerals Management Service accepted gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography. It reports a ‘deeply disturbing’ culture of ethical failure and cronyism between government and industry. Two employees have admitted to using illegal drugs and an inspector admitted using crystal meth and said he might have been under the influence the next day.” I recently stumbled upon an article, buried in my files, from September 11, 2008 titled, “Federal Oil Officials Accused in Sex and Drugs Scandal.” It reported on Employees of the Denver office of the Interior Department’s Mineral Management Service, who were accused of “a culture of ethical failure by allegedly accepting gifts from and having sex with industry representatives.” It went on: the Department’s watchdog described a party atmosphere in which some of the employees “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relations” with those they were supposed to be watching over in a more professional capacity. The watchdog’s (apparently) earlier report said, “We discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity.” Based on such evidence of obvious and rampant addiction in the staff of a regulatory agency, a Drug Addiction Recognition Expert ® might have suggested actions that would have gone a long way in preventing the BP oil spill almost two years later.