“The Gulf oil rig explosion – on the scene photos“. Dramatic photos, and a smidgeon of insight, about the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion have been provided to Anthony Watts and he posts it.

Commenters are, of course, noting that “more oil seeps naturally than from human spills“, and that “the Feds have only made the problem worse by their slow and bumbling action/inaction” (maybe this can be spun as Obama’s “Katrina”!!!). There have also been deeply delusional speculations about “deliberate sabotage for political reasons“.

As noted by Climate Progress from the Wall Street Journal;

BP’s “it can’t happen here” mentality is no doubt why it decided to save $500,000 and didn’t bother with “a remote-control shutoff switch that two other major oil producers, Norway and Brazil, require,” the WSJ reported (subs. req’d).

BP knows it can’t blame the feds since it fought efforts to change the voluntary self-regulation laws, the industry opposed mandates for the remote-control shutoff switch, BP sold the Minerals Management Service on a laughable planning scenario — it was “unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities” — and the industry, not the feds, have the relevant equipment to stop the gusher.