"The Interior Department exempted BP's calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

Now, environmentalists and some key senators are calling for a reassessment of safety requirements for offshore drilling."

Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post May 5, 2010. [2]

See Also:

"Congressmen Raised Concerns About BP Safety in Months Before Gulf Spill" (ProPublica) [3]

"Government Regulator Downplayed Environmental Impact Of Spill" (Huffington Post) [4]

"Warnings on Backup Systems for Oil Rigs Sounded 10 Years Ago" (Greenwire) [5]