we haven t focused just on blowout preventers. we put in place this past fall a set of new drilling safety rules that imposes the first for the first time a set of quite substantial requirements on operators who propose to drill both in the gulf of mexico and anywhere else. it requires certifications by independent engineers of the drilling process. it requires them to address issues relating to well design, well casing, well cementing, which are all in the category of prevention which the president mentioned in some of the clips you played and that you mentioned. i don t think any of your reports have talked about those prevention measures that we ve put in place. which are in fact very significant changes in what industry is required to do, and imposed significant burdens on industry. they ve got to meet all those new requirements in each and every application to drill that they file with our agency.
all of those requirements before we ll even consider granting their application to drill. so that s the big missing piece of the puzzle that i haven t heard you talk about, and that is extremely significant, far more significant than blowout preventers and far more significant than containment. although those issues are very important, too. well, i agree with you that we have not been talking about the changes to drilling process and well design and well casing and cementing. we ve been talking about the blowout preventers issue because we were sort of horrified to see the new report come out and forensic examination showing what went wrong rachel wait, i ll talk, then you talk suggesting design flaws in blowout preventers when we look at the way you re treating blowout preventers in your new heightened safety regulations you are bragging out. you want them evaluated and maintained in a way that you can see better. that does mat make me feel better on us continuing to rely
questions. when we talk about so many questions that still exist out there, how confident are you that new safety regulations that could go into effect could safeguard the waters against other disaster like this one happening? well, i think it s sort of like when you have an airline crash. you go to the airline, you go to the manufacturer of the aircraft, and you figure out what happened, and then you put regulations in place to prevent it from happening again and you ensure the public is protected. i think that s happening in this case. we re doing the very best job we can on the blowout preventer to make sure that part of it never happens again. they re also looking at the regulations regarding the drilling process and the capping off process to make sure that doesn t happen. i think as long as we are so dependent on oil for our day-to-day lives, we ve just got to do what we have to do. you were the first to report the presence of these deep plumes of oil.
the government knows about it. the government could be stopping it. and they appear to be trying to let it slide without explanation. let me explain. here s what we found. the process of exploring for oil is of course a dangerous process. accidents happen. when you re drilling into the earth s crust, there s all sorts of pressure that builds up below the surface of the earth. oil drilling is essentially about controlling that pressure while extracting the oil that you re down there for in the first place. right? but sometimes accidents do happen. sometimes that pressure builds up and builds up and essentially surges up through the drilling pipe the drilling pipe. it s a well blowout. that s where the blowout preventer is supposed to come in, right? you ve had a serious malfunction in the drilling process. now it is about containing the damage. the car crash has happened. the air bag is deployed. the blowout preventer is basically a piece of equipment that s attached to the top of an
joining us now is one of the men responsible for punching that rescue down into the mine faster than anyone could hope. jeff hart knows drilling and knows life and death. his last gig was in afghanistan he s an engineer with the lane christensen company. and i spoke with him moments after the first miner was brought to the surface. congratulations. what was it like for you to see this first man being brought out alive after you have been working on this and your colleagues around the clock to make sure this happens? we worked real long and hard on that. and to actually see that capsule come through the first time through the hole that we drilled is just unbelievable. we re all kind of in disbelief that we re part of this. you had more than a part and your colleagues as well. you worked around the clock, three different drills, plan a, b and c. you were plan b. you actually started later but you broke through first. i read that you said this was the most difficult drilling process