Could the post-Macondo oil industry be self-regulated?
That’s what William Reilly, the co-chairman of President Obama’s appointed commission investigating the BP spill, has hinted. Reilly draws inspiration from the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations, an industry group that has proposed and enforced standards for American nuclear power plants since the Three Mile Island accident. But an industry-run watchdog would not be the sole regulator for oil companies operating in the United States. Reilly has only suggested a self-regulating agency as “an addition, not as a substitute for regulation.” The American public and Congress, however, are likely to be more skeptical.
