How can any future applications

[jeanpalmer]

for offshore drilling be approved? The permitting process requires the drilling company to submit a response plan setting out what it would do in the event of a leak. It's hard to imagine a plan that could be deemed adequate by the government, based on the inability to deal with the current leak. It's hard to envision any level of planning or resources that would be adequate to respond to this kind of leak. Once a leak occurs, it really is a "lost cause."

So how can the government approve any future drilling? To allow more drilling, the government seemingly would have to do away with or ignore the requirement that the driller have an adequate response plan. BP's plan obviously was fraudulent. I assume all plans are inadequate at least. So it's going to be interesting to see how the government deals with this requirement, because pressure is already building to resume drilling.

[LARED]

1. There is a significant difference between

response plans and response plans that work.