Cheney's Parting Gift

Bush Administration Hires Incompetent Engineer To Approve Gulf Drilling - Just Months Before End Of Term: "Also, the last government employee to inspect the rig before it exploded testified that, as a matter of course, he doesn't collect key information that could have determined why safety systems failed."

Mathews, an accident investigator for MMS, questioned Frank Patton, the agency's New Orleans District drilling engineer, about his approval of BP's drilling permit for Deepwater Horizon. Mathews noted that MMS regulation 250.416(e) requires drillers to submit proof that the blowout preventer they are using to shut off the well will have enough power to shear a drill pipe in case of an emergency.

Those mechanisms on the 450-ton blowout preventer at the bottom of the seabed are called shear rams, a pair of high-pressure valves and blades that are supposed to slice through a gushing drill pipe and close off a well leak. But all attempts to get them to cut the Deepwater Horizon's pipes have been unsuccessful.

Patton, his voice quavering at times, testified he was not aware of any such requirement. He has never demanded such proof from any of the more than 100 applications his office reviews each year.

"I have never been told to look for this statement," Patton said. The BP permit application had "no information on blind shear rams' ability to shear the drill pipe used."

"If they didn't submit it, why did we approve it?" Mathews shot back.

"That is one thing I don't look for in my approval process," Patton said. "I've never looked for that statement there."

"Is this just you, or is this MMS-wide? " Mathews persisted.

"I'm not sure," Patton said sheepishly.

Another MMS official on the panel, John McCarroll, continued to put the pressure on. He asked whether Patton was aware of a 2004 study for MMS by WEST Engineering that found problems with blowout preventers shearing heavy drill pipe. Patton said he wasn't. McCarroll asked him when he took over as the permitting engineer in New Orleans. Patton said 2008.

"And that report was written in 2004," McCarroll repeated

I see this as a gigantic crime - perhaps the greatest of all time.