Systemic Failures in Risk Management by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean

"The immediate causes of the Macondo well blowout can be traced to a series of identifiable mistakes made by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean that reveal such systematic failures in risk management that they place in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry." - excerpt from the new report by the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling. Read the just-released report.

Preparing For A Large Oil Spill In Washington State:
A coalition of stakeholder groups comprised of local elected officials, shellfish growers, fishermen, recreation, conservation, and tourism interests, are working to advance policy changes focused on strengthening Washington State's oil spill preparedness, prevention and response program to make sure we have enough spill equipment and personnel ready to respond to a major spill in our waters. In addition, the campaign seeks to fully fund the state's oil spill program which is currently woefully underfunded.

Several policy changes are needed to ensure that Washington is well prepared for a major spill, including:

• Improve funding for the Department’s Oil Spill Program, which is currently running a multi-million dollar deficit.

• Strengthen requirements for stockpiling appropriate spills response equipment in Washington to ensure that we have equipment on hand to respond in rough seas, fast currents, darkness and fog, and other challenging environments. Ensure that we are ready for a large spill in Puget Sound and the Pacific coast.

• Expand spill response “drill” program to test assumptions made in our spill response plans and to better train responders.

• Train, equip, and drill commercial fishermen for oils spill response to increase the region’s response capacities.