Official Report: BP Totally Screwed Up. They Could Have Avoided Spill

From the BBC

Specific risks the report identifies include:

• A flawed design for the cement used to seal the bottom of the well

• A test of that seal identified problems but was "incorrectly judged a success"

• The workers' failure to recognise the first signs of the impending blow-out

The conclusions run counter to industry efforts to portray the Deepwater Horizon disaster as a rare occurence, as oil companies prod the US government to open greater areas of the US coast to oil exploration.

"The blowout was not the product of a series of aberrational decisions made by rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to occur again," the report read.

"Rather, the root causes are systemic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur."

And we have apparently begun off-shore drilling again without any of the recommended protections.