January 7, From the NYTimes, Failure in the Gulf.
January 5, 2011. Article re BP, Transocean, Halliburton blamed by presidential Gulf oil spill commission.
The presidential oil spill commission on Wednesday blamed the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year on “missteps and oversights” by oil giant BP, rig owner Transocean and contractor Halliburton, saying those errors were “rooted in systemic failures” and could happen again.
The commission said that the April 20 blowout at BP’s Macondo well was not inevitable, but rather a failure of management in which officials from all three firms ignored critical warning signs and failed to take precautions that might have delayed the completion of the well but also might have averted the environmental disaster.
Recovery Diva 
Similarly, politicians never want to replace old gas pipes either. Just look at San Bruno, CA
Good points. A strong regulatory system is neededfor oil, water, and mine safety to name just a few.
The water system in this country is a ticking time bomb. The system is very old in many areas and we run our waste, storm and drinking water through virtually the same systems. Every year there are numerous problems with breaks, etc. It is as if the system is trying to give us a wake up call yet we ignore the warning signs. Out of sight-out of mind.
I have never heard a politcian run on a platform that included major redesigns and upgrades of the water system. When it fails it will fail catastrophically.
Randy
With water quickly becoming our number one concern for future survivability we need to recognize that incidents such as these take a larger toll than we might first believe, even when we are shocked by an incident. If steps are not taken soon to stop corporate profit from taking precedence over responsible business practices we may soon find ourselves in postion that will take our quality of life back a couple hundred years. We have a finite amount of water and we seem to be working furiously to destroy it. A water shortage will make our current and past concerns about oil shortages seem like much to do about nothing.