Safety slighted before blow out was the conclusion of a new independent report by the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council citing multiple flawed decisions from a deficient overall systems approach to safety among the corporations that ran the drilled of the Macondo well. The report says the petroleum industry and federal regulators focused more on exploration and production than safety in the years leading up to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, setting the stage for the worst offshore environmental disaster in US history.

Not only is this a shaming report but it raises urgent questions about what has changed that will force and enforce safety first.

BP in a high-stakes court filing on Monday accused Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence about the quality of its cement slurry that went into drilling the oil well that blew out last year and caused the worst U.S. offshore oil spill.

With much of the gulf coast region still feeling the effects of the BP oil spill in April 2010, the question of who is to blame for this disaster is on many people’s minds. The issue may never be completely resolved, especially for those who lost family members and profits from the spill. However, there may be an answer to this question now, or at least a partial one. A report put out by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE), which is formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS), and the Coast Guard, puts the blame on multiple companies. The report states that BP, Transocean, and other contractors such as Halliburton that were involved in the complete process and permitting of the Deepwater Horizon well are all to blame, according to the report. Cutting corners and changing plans last minute are mentioned as possible reasons for the blowout and explosion. There is one more critical aspect that must be examined, and it is the entire regulatory process that allowed many of these mistakes to happen in the first place.

With much of the gulf coast region still feeling the effects of the BP oil spill in April 2010, the question of who is to blame for this disaster is on many people’s minds. The issue may never be completely resolved, especially for those who lost family members and profits from the spill. However, there may be an answer to this question now, or at least a partial one. A report put out by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE), which is formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (MMS), and the Coast Guard, puts the blame on multiple companies. The report states that BP, Transocean, and other contractors such as Halliburton that were involved in the complete process and permitting of the Deepwater Horizon well are all to blame, according to the report. Cutting corners and changing plans last minute are mentioned as possible reasons for the blowout and explosion. There is one more critical aspect that must be examined, and it is the entire regulatory process that allowed many of these mistakes to happen in the first place.