Coast Guard Captain leading hearings Wednesday: ‘It’s my understanding that [a blowout preventer is] designed to industry standard … manufactured by the industry, installed by the industry, with no government witnessing or oversight of the construction or installation. Is that correct?’ Regional supervisor, federal regulator MMS: ‘That is correct…’ That staggering statement of regulatory impotence was characterized this way by Sen. Bill Nelson in the Wall Street Journal: ‘If MMS wasn’t asleep at the wheel, it sure was letting Big Oil do most of the driving.’ It is tempting to hope that Big Oil’s days in the driver’s seat are over, now that the Obama administration has ordered that the Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, be split up, after critics said the agency was too close to the industry and had an inherent conflict of interest. Realists are highly skeptical. And in our view, it is shortsighted to focus public ire on one business and one massive, deadly disaster, even as HuffPost yesterday spoke to another whistle-blower alleging egregious practices. This story lays bare the far-reaching (and largely unnoticed) emasculation of government regulatory power, as it has succumbed to corporate agendas over the past […]