In this New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/us/11prepare.html?hp), experts discuss BP's preparedness for an uncontrolled blowout on a deepwater drilling rig and offer some pretty tough commentary:

- "Blowouts are surprisingly regular occurrences. But ones that lead to catastrophic spills like this are quite rare." John Amos, Geologist who testified before Congress that the East Timor blowout was a warning signal to industry to prepare for the worst case scenario.

- "They have horribly underestimated the likelihood of a spill and therefore horribly underestimated the consequences of something going wrong." Robert Bea, University of California, Berkley, professor.

- "The oil industry went off the deep end with a new kind of risk, and they didn't bother to build a response capability before they had a big disaster." Rick Charter, Defendants of Wildlife.

- "It is like building the fire truck when your house is on fire." Dr. Rick Steiner, Marine Biologist, describing the construction of a containment dome after the blow out.

- "Ultimately it's an investment challenge. How much money are you willing to spend on an event that happens infrequently?" Dr. Jeffrey Short, former scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who now works for the environmental group, Oceana.

Predictable Occurrence + Expensive Preparation Costs + Conscious Decision to Avoid Paying These Costs = Profits Over People. When will we learn?