atlantic coast. when these are the terms of the debate, which party is more pro- drilling when that s the fight, i m more pro-drilling. no, i m more pro-drilling. when that s the terms of the political debate, it s not like we re progressing in leaps and bounds toward making things more safe. you can see that in the total lack of action by congress on this issue. and frankly you can see it in the behavior of this administration. about a year after the bp oil spill, we had the top offshore drilling regulator from the obama administers as a guest on this show. that interview did not go well. he appeared on the show in order to defend new rules that his agency put into place in theç wake of the bp disaster. among the new rules a requirement that the oil companies now state which containment systems they will have ready in the event of a blow out. this is an emergency system to
deepwater horizon, but who ten herbally that serious. i m afraid to get the american public s attention, it s going to take another incident where oil is coming onto people s beaches and people will say, wait a minute, i thought the industry fixed this two years ago or three years ago. until that happens, it s clear to me there s going to be no leadership from the government regulators or the politicians. it s going to have to come from us to make it, to fix this particular situation. bob, energy industry veteran, author of disaster on the horizon. good to have you here, i appreciate it. it is great to be with you, rachel. thank you very much. on one important reproductive rights issue, the mitt romney campaign has decided it wants to be to the right of the republican legislation in the gate great state of oklahoma. a magnificent best new thing in the world tonight. stick around.
this is what our oil politics iç like now. this is the sense of urgency we have around safety and oil spills. two years after the worst oil spill in all of recorded history. would our politics have been worse if we hadn t had that spill? is it possible it could be worse? we have the author of disaster on the horizon: the story behind the deep water blowout. it s great to see you. thank you for being here. great to be with you, rachel. in that explanation of what happened, a brief overview of what s happened, did i get anything wrong there? no, rachel, you re pretty much right down the middle. it makes me want to bang my head on my desk when i ve watched what s not happened over the last couple of years. it has been very frustrating. congress specifically has not done anything in terms of safety regulations since the bp disaster, in terms of following the law and drilling legally, things have not gotten better at all? that s precisely correct. in fact, it s worse than that.
agency but lished an editorial in the houston chronicle talking about the lessons learned from the bp oil disaster. they describe all of their strong new safety standards that the oil industry is required to meet. you may note that the head is no longer michael brownwich. it s a new guy named james wattton. whatever happened to my friend michael brownwich? he said the oil spill is okie-dokie. he s landed a brand new gig. he s left the administration and is now working for the oil industry. he s now pitching services like crisis management and strategic advising to the very same oil companies he was tasked with regulating in the wake of the bp disaster. don t worry, quote, mr. brownwich has tasked with regulating in the wake of the bp disaster. he s pledged to not directly lobby the offshore drilling agencies that he created.
creating the potential for a major oil spill. that was april 22enned of last year, we did not know, of course, how bad it would get. those 11 workers who went missing that night never returned home. we could not know that the blown well would keep spewing millions of barrels of oil for three months into the gulf of mexico. we did not know that night what had precipitated the accident. now we know some of what went wrong, but congressional action to fix it has so far consisted of $40 billion worth of correspondent welfare for the industry, and making it quicker for them to get their permits, no matter how safe this sort of drilling is. joining us now is bob cavnar. he was president and ceo of an oil drilling firm. he s author of the book, disaster on the horizon. thanks for joining us tonight. good to be with you, rachel.