Acoustic Switch News Today

Words of its critics, rubber stamps the oil industrys action and unable to enforce safety regulation. in 2000, they issued a safety alert calling for offshore drillers in the u.s. to have an additional backup system called and acoustic switch that could prevent oil blowouts like the one in the gulf. they went so far to call it a quote essential component. just three years later after complaints from the oil industry, mms determined it wasnt so essential after all, saying it was too costly and ef...

Theyve shown that theyre too cozy with industry. >> reporter: too cozy indeed. two years ago internal government investigation discovered ethical failures by a dozen mms employees. some were even having sex and using marijuana and cocaine with oil company employees. >> it was very clear, they thought that partying, drinking, accepting expensive tickets and hotel rooms, somehow made it easier for them to understand the business of how much ore and oil and natural gas was being taken out. >> repor...

Regulation. in 2000, they issued a safety alert calling for offshore drillers in the u.s. to have an additional backup system called and acoustic switch that could prevent oil blowouts like the one in the gulf. they went so far to call it essential component. just three years later after complaints from the oil industry, mns determined it wasnt so essential after all, saying it was too costly and effective, never mind bp is required to use it on rigs in two other countries. stuart smith is an en...

Additional backup system called an acoustic switch that could prevent oil blowouts like the one in the gulf. they went so far to call it essential component. just three years later after complaints from the oil industry, mms determined it wasnt so essential afterall, saying would be too costly and ineffective. never mind the fact that bp is required to use it on rigs in two other countries. >> lets load up. >> reporter: stuart smith has won dozens of cases against the oil industry and is recomme...

You cant trust mms. theyve shown theyre too cozy with industry. >> reporter: too cozy, indeed. two years ago an internal investigation discovered ethical failures by more than a dozen mms employees and some were having sex and using marijuana and cocaine with oil company employees. >> they thought partying, drinking, accepting expensive tickets in hotel rooms somehow made it easier for them to understand the business of how much oil and how much natural gas was being taken out. >> reporter: cnn ...

Our brian todd is following the investigation into the oil rig explosion and the spill. hes joining us now from venice, louisiana. brian? >> reporter: fred, bp officials clearly defending their safety record as they have been for the last couple of days. one of the questions weve been asking that has been raised in this investigation is, was a backup system that could have prevented the blowup from malfunctions or maybe shut down the well on its own, this is called an acoustic switch, a remote c...

Really are reflecting on how this got so out of hand in the first place. this backup system, apparently. there was one in place and possibly there was a problem that may have prevented all this in the first place? explain. >> in other countries, in norway and brazil specifically, they require massive rigs to have a one type of backup system that is an acoustic switch. by remote control it shuts off the wellhead when an explosion occurs and can prevent massive amounts of oil. in the united states...

Safety. >> mike, are you telling our audience tonight that they were too cheap to spend $500,000 on heels of record profits to put in an acoustic switch which would have triggered the blowout preventer which could have stopped all of this? >> its the most unrereported part of this story out there, ed. i done know why the media is not talking about this, but thats what it came down to. dick cheney changed political policy with the energy industry. we all remember when he met behind closed doors w...

They did all parts of the environment. the s.e. krechv. you look at it, its all deregulatory problem. were stuck with a problem where 20 million gallons of oil are spilling into the gulf. theres no way to clean up. and in a perfect world, ed, think about this, in a perfect world if everything goes perfectly were going to be able to get 20% of the oil from the gulf. and what ends up happening is the rest of that crude it becomes catastrophic for an entire eco system. >> i think the issue now is t...