Hindsight 2020: Lessons We Cannot Ignore from the BP Disaster - Oceana USA

Report | April, 2020

Hindsight 2020: Lessons We Cannot Ignore from the BP Disaster

 

Explore Stories From Oceana's Report

On April 20, 2010, the BP exploratory rig Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing 11 workers and setting off the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Oil gushed from the seafloor for 87 days, ultimately spewing more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Ten years after one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, this report examines the cause and impacts of the catastrophe; how those impacts are still being felt today; and whether the disaster changed the government and industry’s approach to offshore drilling. To answer these questions, Oceana reviewed government documents, media coverage, scientific studies, reports from nonprofit organizations and interviewed Gulf Coast residents, scientists, business owners and policy experts.

Explore Oceana’s findings in the interactive feature above, which includes video testimonials from Gulf residents who lived through the disaster, the scientists analyzing the impacts and policy experts trying to prevent a repeat. These stories help us understand what is at stake under President Trump’s radical plan to expand offshore drilling to nearly all U.S. waters.

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