Big Oil Doesn't Learn... Or Doesn't Care

The Ixtoc oil spill of 1979 is currently the largest peacetime spill. The oil industry had 31 years to learn from that disaster to figure out a better way of making sure this type of offshore drilling disaster couldn't happen again. However, as spending money on this type of research would cost money and cut profits, it simply didn't happen because there were no regulations in place that required oil companies to prepare actionable contingency plans for this type of situation.

Just like the top kill approach failed in the Ixtoc spill, it failed in Macondo. Oil kept gushing from the Ixtoc well for months after the relief well was completed. Despite Tony Hayward's rhetoric, the BP spill will likely keep gushing oil into the gulf for months from now, and months after the "cure-all" relief well is finished. As a result, the Macondo oil spill has the potential to surpass the Ixtoc spill as the largest peacetime spill in the history of humanity. [ABC News]