I strongly agree with President Obama that we need to hold both BP and Washington accountable. Unfortunately, I doubt that much will change in the cozy relationship between regulators and Big Oil, until what John McCain used to call the “iron triangle” – special interests, campaign finance and lobbying – is seriously addressed. Also, we need to keep a much closer eye on the “revolving door” between private industry and government regulators of that same industry. As President Obama says, we “need to take a comprehensive look at how the oil and gas industry operates and how we regulate them.” Hopefully, this commission will come up with recommendations that address these issues, plus make strong recommendations for offshore oil drilling that ensure that disasters like this never happen again.
