I caused the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

 Since the tragic explosion and fire on the MODU Deepwater Horizon and the large discharge of oil from the Macondo well, numerous government and private searches, followed intently by the media and the public, have searched for the cause.  I now confess that it was me – I caused the whole thing.  Immediately after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), there was a major decrease (in excess of 80%) in the volume of oil entering the waters of the United States from ships.  This was not due to any regulations issued by the Coast Guard, which actually were not promulgated until 1993 at the earliest.  Rather, it was due to the recognition by all involved that the old way of doing business was no longer acceptable.  Everyone in the industry, from owners and operators to masters and mariners, changed their mindset and adopted a new watchfulness.  Keeping oil out of the water became highly important.  The success shown by the industry in this regard caused everyone, myself included, to become complacent.  Dictionaries define “complacent” as meaning smugly self-satisfied or calmly content, especially when unwarranted.  That was me, exactly.  Because ships were being better designed (with double hulls on tankers and protectively-located fuel tanks on all) and better operated (with AIS and other navigational improvements), I quit looking for other potential sources of oil spills.  Because major blowouts from oil wells were rare, I failed to fully consider the potential devastation if one went very, very bad.  Because companies generally did the right thing and complied with industry guidelines and applicable regulations, I turned a blind-eye when Congress reduced funding to the regulatory agencies.  I knew that individuals were prone to cutting corners, but assumed that the various redundancies built into complex systems, such as the drilling of offshore oil wells, would more than compensate for those inevitable lapses.  It never occurred to me that numerous individuals would independently cut corners at the same time within the same system, allowing catastrophic failure to occur.  Because of my complacency, I am responsible for 50% of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  There is one other person responsible to the other 50%.  I do not know his or her name, but you might identify that person by looking in the mirror.