BP platform wasn’t inspected
Company was lobbying to expand free passes when blowout occurred
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The Washington Post reports today that the U.S. Interior Ministry gave BP’s Gulf drilling operations a free pass last year from an environmental impact analysis, having concluded in three previous reviews that a calamitous oil spill in the area was unlikely. And just 11 days before the explosion on its Deep Water Horizon platform, the company was vigorously lobbying to get the exemptions expanded, the Post says, citing government documents. Given the current crisis, the revelation suggests either the inspection regime is inadequate, or that the inspections themselves were somehow deficient.