Throwing Precaution To The Wind: NEPA and the Deepwater Horizon Blowout

On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum's ("BP") Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded, killing eleven workers. When the platform sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico two days later, oil erupted out of the riser-a 5000-foot pipe connecting the platform to the well on the ocean floor.   Efforts to stem the flow failed when a safety device, the "blowout preventer," could not be activated.' Finally, after a number of attempts to stop the leak, BP capped the well on July15.4 Nearly five million barrels of oil were released over the course of eighty-six days, making the Deepwater Horizon the largest offshore oil spill in world history.