Money did not trump safety

To date we have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety.

That's Fred Bartlit, lead investigator for the presidential panel investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher, in his remarks to the commission earlier today as reported by the New York Times.

The AP article on Bartlit's presentation has an interesting caveat, one which Bartlit might not have intended:

"Anytime you are talking about a million-and-a-half dollars a day money enters in," he said. "All I am saying is human beings did not sit there and sell safety down the river for dollars on the rig that night."

"That night" is a curiously limited time frame. The groundwork for the explosion almost certainly was laid in the weeks prior. Was this merely a slip of the tongue, or is this a hint that any blame will rest with others who weren't on the rig that night?

The investigators only reported their preliminary findings: they still have work to do. However, I'm not exactly reassured that "Bartlit said he agreed with 'about 90 percent'" of the conclusions reached by BP's own investigation. I have little confidence that BP has allowed all pertinent and necessary information to be gathered by anyone, so if Bartlit and his investigators have relied on BP for such information, the panel's final report will be neither complete nor accurate. Not only will such a flawed report prevent the responsible parties from being called to account, it won't help to prevent another Deepwater Horizon.