This might be speculative but certainly plausible: It’s time to question the existence of the EPA. Murray Rothbard often pointed out that bureaucracies usually exist to cartelize enterprise for the benefit of a few at the expense of the rest. It’s done through state force and taxation, of course. It also serves to eliminate new entrants from the competitive field. The very reason you and I could not just pool our resources and decide to plunk down an oil platform offshore and drill. It might undercut their price!
I kind of think Rothbard would say today that BECAUSE of EPA (or Dept. of Energy?) favors, companies are now released from the incentive to practice safe clean drilling. Because corruption is so easy to come by, if a company is among the favored few, what incentive do they have to be environmentally conscious? There are no more new competitors.
So now, of course, we’ll have to deal with govt. ‘to the rescue’ regarding oil. Drilling off the US shores will probably be forbidden for the rest of our lifetimes at least. (Was the spill deliberate? It sure might be worth it to those ‘in the club.’) Nothing surprises me any more given the potential depths of corruption which bureaucracy gives us.
PS: What is the involvement of the Dept. of Energy vs. the EPA in this? Does anyone know?