Another oil-platform fire: Now, will the rules change?

A fire at the Mariner Energy facility in the Gulf of Mexico has renewed fears of a BP-scale disaster — and intensified the war over tighter drilling regulations

Boats spray water on an oil platform after it exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on September 2, 2010 off the coast of Louisiana.
(Image credit: Getty)

The government has announced it will conduct a "full investigation" of a fire on an oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which sparked fears Thursday of a second catastrophic spill in the region just weeks after the BP Deepwater Horizon leak was finally plugged. Fortunately, no leak occurred at the Mariner Energy facility and all 13 workers on board were rescued safely. Will this latest incident renew the push for tighter regulations on offshore drilling? (Watch a briefing on the fire)

This is more proof that the risks are too high: Thursday's explosion was hardly a surprise, says Kieran Suckling of the Center for Biological Diversity, quoted in the Los Angeles Times. "Offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is like playing Russian roulette" — another disaster is inevitable. Washington must renew the push for more drilling limits or prepare for another catastrophe on the scale of the BP gusher.

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