Gulf of Mexico oil disaster was avoidable, says presidential comission

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill was an avoidable disaster that resulted from management failures by BP PLC and its main contractors, a presidential commission has concluded. But the accident also reflected "systemic failures" by the oil industry and its government regulators to deal with the risks of deep-water oil exploration, the panel said. They go on to use such comments as "individual missteps and oversights" and "the root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur." But we knew that all along. More or less as soon as it happened people in the know were singing like canaries. This report just puts those songs down on paper!

One has to wonder if anything is going to change in the corporate pysche. Those managing these large corporations seem to have the idea that the 21st century allows them to ease up on integrity and pump up the deceit and the cunning and the spin. One day they might find good folk turning on them when the sheriff's out of town. Haven't they made any New Year's resolutions to be good guys?