Criminal Prosecution of Oil Drilling Employees

Open e-mail to Rep. Neugebauer:

Rep. Neugebauer:

I have to hand to the Obama Administration for developing innovative ways to accomplish its goals. I say this in the same context that I admire the ability of thieves to develop new ways to steal.

I just heard on Fox News that the Justice Department is investigating criminal prosecution of managers and engineers of BP for the Gulf oil spill.

With this new development, any oil drilling executives and engineers would have to be out of their minds to continue drilling for oil and gas in the traditional manner of facing the hazards of natural forces and some beleageurment with government regulations. They would now have to worry about personal fines and jail time.

It would not even be necessary for the Justice Department to actually conduct an investigation with intent to prosecute. The mere threat that this is a possibility will put the fear of God into operators.

The outcome of this will be that oil and gas drillers will either go out of business, which is highly unlikely, or more likely they will be developing a strategy to deal with it. The most obvious strategy is to reduce the risk of natural disaster. This can be done by cutting back on deep water drilling and only drill far off the coasts of populated areas. This has two negative effects. The big possibilities of large oil reserves being discovered is considerably reduced. Any oil and gas which would be discovered in remote regions would involve significant costs for transportation either through pipeline or tankers.

A second strategy is to not move a muscle, unless all details of an operation are approved in writing by federal inspectors. This would include development of horrendous safety plans, with details on composition and manufacturing techniques of all physical parts used in the drilling operation and a complete (perhaps thousands of pages) of corrective actions which might be taken in case of accident. This would include details of financial compensations and a multitude of associated legal documents. The net result would be to hamstring the already half hamstrung operation of drilling. Oil and gas production would be significantly reduced and the cost of any production would be significantly higher, with correspondingly higher prices to the consuming public.

Rep. Neugebauer, what are you going to do about this atrocity perpetrated on your constituency?