“I am from BP, and I am here to help”

One thing that the debacle in the Gulf of mexico has made clear is that private industry can’t do much to fix problems, even ones of their own creation. It might be time to just admit that with large scale projects the government either needs to be in charge or perhaps partnered with a very tightly regulated public utility; but it is pretty clear after the financial meltdown and now the eviromental meltdown private industry is not able or willing to look out for both public interest and there own profit interests.