Courier, Houma, Louisiana, on inspection failures

May 13
Courier, Houma, Louisiana, on inspection failures:
The U.S. recently marked the fourth anniversary of the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The deadly explosion that caused the disaster and the months of thick oil spewing into the water off our coast were horrific reminders of the dangers that can be associated with oil and gas production.
The workers who play such a valuable role in that industry, the many who depend on it for their energy and the people and businesses who are close to oil wells deserve to know that these installations are carefully monitored.
Unfortunately, a new federal report prompts important concerns about the agency tasked with keeping a watchful eye on the thousands of oil and gas wells that dot the nation — including those in Louisiana.
While the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting spill happened in the Gulf, many of the nation’s oil and gas wells are on land. They are regulated by the federal Bureau of Land Management, but a report by the Government Accountability Office casts doubt on how carefully it is carrying out its important responsibilities.
The report says many of the BLM’s shortcomings stem from a lack of money in its budget. But that is little comfort to the people who depend on the federal government to make sure these wells don’t pose an inordinate risk to public safety or the environment. ...
This situation is particularly distressing at a time when our nation is so rapidly expanding its use of fracking technologies to extract oil and gas from deep beneath the earth, a process that already worries some environmental activists who see it as a possible threat to water quality.
Regardless of whether those fears turn out in the long run to have merit, the federal agency is giving the public little reason to trust that adequate safeguards are in place.
Part of the answer could be putting more money into the inspection program, but clearly there are other factors at work as well. The fact that so many inspections have been neglected and so many more sites have not even been classified is a serious blow to public confidence, one that will take a concerted effort to overcome.
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