Newswise — “As BP continues its ad hoc experiment in engineering at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, Congress seems engaged in an equally ad hoc response. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer provided the latest example over the weekend, announcing that he will introduce a thoroughly redundant piece of legislation to repeal the 160-year-old ‘Limitation Act.’ Repeal of such an antiquated statute to oil spills is a great idea — so much so that Congress did it 20 years ago in passing the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. “Instead of political grandstanding, Congress should try to cap a real and important gap in legislation addressing oil exploration. Oil companies are allowed to drill without conducting a plan to address the kind of the worst-case scenario we now see unfolding.
“Well blowouts are a common danger on land and operating at a mile under the ocean raises the risks. BP’s plan for a blowout at this depth seems to have been not to have blowouts. With hundreds of wells in increasingly deeper water, failing to require BP and other oil companies to have a workable ‘Plan B’ represents a significant regulatory failure. “Congress should act. But tinkering with liability in hindsight is as ad hoc as BP’s efforts. Liability reform will ensure only that the spill will employ more lawyers and lobbyists than engineers. Ideally, as the benefits of political grandstanding fade, legislators will see more benefit in making companies hire engineers in advance of an accident, rather than lawyers after the fact.” --Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Cornell University Professor of Law
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