Learning from Disaster: Lessons for the Future from the Gulf of Mexico

摘要

On the evening of April 20, 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon burst into flames, killing eleven workers on board and setting off a chain of events that would send five million gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the next three months. As the crisis in the Gulf unfolded over the summer of 2010, the members of the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review and its advisors decided to organize a symposium to analyze the events leading up to the spill. The focus of our symposium was not on retroactive liability, but rather looking prospectively at ways to anticipate and prevent the next environmental disaster. What went wrong, and what actions should we suggest to prevent the next oil system failure? The symposium, which was co-sponsored by the Boston College Environmental Studies Program, Boston College Law School's Environmental Law Society, and the Boston College Energy and Environment Alumni Network (BCEEAN), with generous sponsorship from John D. Hanify, '74, gathered leading academics to discuss their thoughts on how to avoid another catastrophe. The symposium took place on November 11, 2010, at Boston College Law School.