Brian Black: Oil Spill Commission report could shape industry's future
When President Barack Obama established the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling on May 22, 2010, the worst oil disaster in American history had just entered its second month.
Oil was gushing into the Gulf from a hole in the sea floor, with no end in sight. Americans were transfixed and horrified by the biggest story of 2010. Congress, firmly in the hands of Democrats and eager to expose the culpability of an oil industry many viewed as reckless and rapacious, launched a frenzy of hearings, as many as five in a single day.
More than seven months later, the commission will present its final findings Tuesday about the disaster -- its causes and lessons -- in a very different environment....
Brian Black, a professor of history and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona, also views the spill and the study as a turning point in taming the oil industry.
"I hope that when I teach about this event in 10 years, I will cite the commission and then trace how our energy transition picked up steam from 2010 forward, and Big Oil was brought under more regulation and monitoring than ever before," Black said. "The problem is that being in the eye of such change often makes its overall trajectory hard to discern."...
Read entire article at NOLA.com
Oil was gushing into the Gulf from a hole in the sea floor, with no end in sight. Americans were transfixed and horrified by the biggest story of 2010. Congress, firmly in the hands of Democrats and eager to expose the culpability of an oil industry many viewed as reckless and rapacious, launched a frenzy of hearings, as many as five in a single day.
More than seven months later, the commission will present its final findings Tuesday about the disaster -- its causes and lessons -- in a very different environment....
Brian Black, a professor of history and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona, also views the spill and the study as a turning point in taming the oil industry.
"I hope that when I teach about this event in 10 years, I will cite the commission and then trace how our energy transition picked up steam from 2010 forward, and Big Oil was brought under more regulation and monitoring than ever before," Black said. "The problem is that being in the eye of such change often makes its overall trajectory hard to discern."...