Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling, Report to the President, January 2011

Publisher: National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

Description: Published by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

“The document released Wednesday by the presidential commission investigating last spring’s oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is a riveting and chilling indictment of “systemic failures” throughout the oil business and of the federal agencies that allowed themselves to be captured by the people they were supposed to regulate.”

— New York Times, January 7, 2011

“What the commission has done is put together the most comprehensive narrative of what happened, both before and after the April 20 event. The commission has employed excellent investigators and has presented its findings in a clear, readable, insightful tale.”

— Joel Achenbach, Achenblog, Washington Post, January 6, 2011

On April 20, 2010, the Macondo well blew out, costing the lives of 11 men and beginning a catastrophe that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and spilled nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill disrupted an entire region’s economy, damaged fisheries and critical habitats, and brought vividly to light the risks of deepwater drilling for oil and gas—the latest frontier in the national energy supply. Soon after, President Barack Obama appointed a seven-member Commission to investigate the disaster, analyze its causes and effects, and recommend the actions necessary to minimize such risks in the future.

The Commission’s report offers the American public and policymakers alike the fullest account available of what happened in the Gulf and why, and proposes actions—changes in company behavior, reform of Government oversight, and investments in research and technology—required as industry moves forward to meet the nation’s energy needs.

ISBN Number: 978-0-16-087371-3

Year/Pages: 2011: 392 p.; ill.

Price: $39.00