I'm glad to see Rachel going "to war" with the DoI over the BOP. I hope when the year anniversary comes around next month that you guys go to the Gulf and find the people who have been poisoned and left destitute due to this disaster. The Gulf Coast Warriors all over the nation thank you and wait for you to tell this story.

You can not compare the Drilling Rules being written before BP Explosion, you said it was an oil leak it was not. It was an explosion that took lives not just an oil leak in the gulf. Apples to Oranges. I like your point just not totally true. Report a better comparison.

I would not be surprised to learn that the same people who worked in MMS are still there, still kanoddling with the oil companies.

Our government officials got greased. Follow the money and send their slimy, crued, and slick greasy butts to jail.

Keep up the good work Rachel. Keep the heat on the drilling shams. Great coverage of the Bake Sale For Bombs stickers we did indeed grow up with in the liberal New England states.

Rachael,

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE your show !

What is really tragic is that there are anwsers available to future deepwater blowouts but they are being ignored by the oil industry. There is a system being developed at LSU that can rapidly seal off a deepwater blowout at any depth. It does it in a matter of days, not months. The system is called EMOPP and has been reviewed by over 130 scientists and industry professional and they all agree....IT WORKS !

The EMOPP tool clogs a leaking oil well from the inside out. Just like a heart attack results from clogged arteries restricting blood flow; an EMOPP clogs the annual space between casing and drill pipe or centerline using patent pending technology and trade secrets. The EMOPP well killer provides a rapid response stop-gap solution to eliminate oil and gas flowing into the environment due to a blow out or other well head incident.

Go to:

#!/pages/EMOPP/127747583912881

Respectfully

Keep up the pressure on the drilling story, so to speak!

I just watched your very short, and seemingly undereducated report on the Deepwater Horizon event on msnbc. I am shocked and disgusted at the obvious lack of knowledge you have on this subject, ie how a blowout preventer is supposed to react in this type of emergency. This peice of equipment is designed to close around drill pipe, seal off, or completely shear the drill pipe in half when an event such as this occurs. In this case the ( casing ) was pushed up into the preventer itself from high pressure being exerted from below. The BOP is designed to close around drill pipe. Not something as large as casing. Once the casing became lodged in the BOPs, the equipment was unable to operate correctly and they ( the BOPs ) were unable to close I have worked in the oilpatch for over 30 years, 11 of those offshore, and have never seen one BOP fail. The loss of life in this catastrophe is of course a tradgedy, and I feel for the families of the lost men. This was an industrial accident, and this type of thing happens in dangerous occupations. Get your facts straight before you start condeming the highest drilling technology we have available today.

Dear Maddow Show,

While I don’t find it hard to believe that blowout preventers have inherent flaws and fail 45% of the time when used and maintained as directed when there is an actual blowout, that was not the cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The cause was the faulty cement job by Halliburton. Maybe the blowout preventer would have failed, but the fact of the matter was it had already failed prior to the blowout.

You can watch the hearings on C-SPAN from the Coast Guard investigation. The blowout preventer had a dead battery and the rubber annular had been damaged, as evidenced by large chunks of rubber in the drilling mud returns. The drilling fluids engineer on the rig testified that when he reported rubber chunks he was told to never mind; it was normal. He objected and said that it would only be normal if they were drilling for rubber. Evidently someone had accidentally activated the drill while the annular was closed for a blowout preventer test.

While I don’t doubt the findings of the firm that claims there is a good chance the blowout preventer will likely fail anyway, I think it is important to not lose sight of the fact that it was layers of red flags, invalid risk assessments and incompetence by actors from Halliburton, Transocean and BP that were the cause of the Deepwater Horizon negligent homicide and environmental catastrophe.

Without the functioning safety valves the workers on the rig will be just collateral damage. Keep up your good and responsible reporting. You will be pressured.

Rachael I LOVE your show !

What is a shame is ther is a way of making a difference in oil rig safety and it is being totally ignored by the oil industry.

The system is called EMOPP and it is presently being developed in cooperation with LSU. The EMOPP system can rapidly seal off a deepwater blowout at ANY depth within days rather then months. The system has been reviewed by over 130 scientists and industry professionals and all agree, the system will work ! For additional information go to Facebook :

#!/pages/EMOPP/127747583912881

Respectfully Yours

Back in the early 80's, I worked for one of the multi-national, multi-faceted oil corporations as a petroleum geologist in New Orleans. About once a month, that involved going offshore to one of my company's oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the end of the Mississippi Delta. In January of 1983, I had been on-board one rig for about a week, there to select the interval of the well where a core would be taken. Being out longer than usual, I took the unusual step of calling my parents from the rig. My mother, it turns out, had been worried that she couldn't contact me back in New Orleans. She was so relieved that I called. But that was almost the last time she heard from me. A few hours later, hurricane-force winds came up, and began pushing the entire rig off-location. It snapped the drill string of oil pipe, and started walking down into deeper water (we were in about 230 ft. of water, and the rig rested on a platform on the sandy sea floor). The rig was shuddering violently, and it soon became clear we were not getting off. I decided to go to my bunk, and to face death asleep when the rig turned over. The next thing I knew, the young geologist I was there with for the coring run was at my door, shouting that we were getting off the rig. I thought he meant that we were going over, but it was dawn the next day and we had walked into a natural gas production platform overnight. Running into that platform saved our lives. During the 90-mile trip back to New Orleans, I told the young geologist to take the rest of the day off, because if he stayed at the office, they would just put him to work. He did not believe me, but when I returned to the office he said that was exactly what had happened. In my own case, the Chief Development Geologist for Chevron Eastern Region walked into my office that next week, shook my hand, turned and walked out of my office without saying a word. As I stood there watching the sob go, I thought to myself that I was just as glad that I hadn't sacrificed my life for the company.

With what is going on in Japan and the dark cloud over nuclear power at the moment (and I don't think it will be long lasting) oil and coal are going to be sounding a lot better, no matter who is in the White House.

What happened to acoustic valves, at least for this super-deep otherwordly drilling? I understand Norway and Brazil, at least, require these alternative manual shutoffs in case the "christmas tree" fails, if U.S. required these, then i say let's drill again and see how it goes this time (using proper number of centering devices, proper cycling of drilling mud, etc. this time as well).

Dear Rachel -

Thanks for great efforts in reporting on this problem. No matter how great the need there can be no excuse for this situation. Your outstanding coverage of this issue allows the citizens to be informed and gives us the power to redirect the direction the government is taking. Or not taking as in this case.

Love your show, but was disappointed in this. Yes, there are more stringent measures for deep water drilling. "The industry has constantly updated blowout preventer technology as drillers contiinue to move into more challenging environments." The new "Hydril-made preventer for Chevron's (newly approved Moccasin well) has two pairs of shear rams to cut the pipe in an emergency."

"The extra efforts reflect the intense scrutiny the industry faces as it returns to the deep water." Quotes from the Houston Chronicle, 3/25.

My family has worked iin the Oil industry for 2 generations. The public doesn't understand all that is involved from discovery to gas station. Demand hasn't gone down. OIl companies employ the best & brightest, highly trained individuals. (My sister-in-law, Jeanmarie Tade, employed by BP, Phi Beta Cappa-William and Mary, edtor of the UT Law Review, Masters in Environmental Law. Brother Lindsay Tade, Geologist, has experience in the North Sea, Brazil and the Gulf). They work VERY hard, sometimes in dangerous conditions.

Oil companies aren't out to "rip people off". Few have gotten really wealthy, but most are just plain hardworking, Americans (the ones you don't hear about). There are costs involved in studies, discovery, refining, pipeline, etc. Oil companies are constantly working for the American people, constantly updating procedures, to provide America a with cheap, high quality product to meet their demand.

There are thousands of wells worldwide, one accident (the Horizon) should be considered, but the overall industry is very positive.

I wish you had investigated this further. I also invite you down to Houston (beautiful city) to see the Oil Companies for yourself. Still love your show!

Just wanted to leave a note saying you made my whole week yesterday during your segment on answering the upset Dept. of the Interior about your spot on report the day before. You are doing outstanding work and you are showing the rest of the media (and politicians) what they should be doing. Investigating and telling the truth and then not walking it back when those in power don't like the sound of it. I would like to send a very heart felt thank you to you and all those wonderful people who work on your show for putting the necessary facts out there so we have access to them and allowing us to be the informed citizens this country so desperately needs now--more than ever.

This was superb investigative reporting, thank you!

What will it take to get the government and Congress in particular to place our

interests above those of corporate conglomerates?

I can't help but wonder if Bush-era people are still running the Department of the Interior. Could that be checked?

Hollywood and others...note the date of this *report* on our Dems trying to get nominations through the Senate for the Dept. of the Interior. Keep up the good work Ms. Maddow!

The link didn't appear in my prior comment to 'Hollywood and others" Hmmm.

Sorry for multiple posts on same topic. I didn't realize that new posters cannot include links...my bad.

So, why is Obama promoting drilling in Brazil and not here? Sounds like he wants Brazilians to do the job that he refuses to do.