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Lessons Unlearned: The Legal And Policy Legacy Of The Bp Deepwater Horizon Spill, Mark Davis

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

The explosion and blowout of the BP Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico dominated much of the news and public discussion during the late spring and summer of 2010. The size and scale of the blowout and its effects on people, communities, and the environment produced loud calls for deep changes in the nation’s energy and environmental laws and policies. While some things have changed, the wide ranging changes that many expected have not yet come to pass; indeed if anything the momentum has shifted to letting aggressive oil and gas development resume and to leave the fundamental …