Since we’re on the subject already, there’s something else that bothers me about the reactions to the spill. I’ve seen quite a bit of angry reactions to the fact that BP’s plans for a possible spill were “obviously inadequate”. (Which they were; see the article for details.)

However, I haven’t seen anyone point out that those plans were approved by the federal government. As I see it, it was explicitly the government’s responsibility (via the relevant regulatory agency) to determine that the company’s policies were appropriate before allowing it to drill.

Putting all the moral blame on BP sounds to me a bit like putting all the blame on a company for killing its customers after the government’s drug-safety agency approved its plans to sell human medicine based on clinical tests on insects. (Except in the case of oil drilling there are actually much fewer companies, AFAIK, that do that, so there’s no excuse for being “swamped with applications” or anything similar.)