"Independent federal experts investigating the blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig are finding major parallels between this year's disaster and a 2005 blast that killed 15 workers at a BP PLC refinery in Texas -- indicating the industry has failed to overhaul safety rules, they said [Wednesday].

The Chemical Safety Board (CSB), a 20-year-old agency created to examine industrial accidents, is inquiring into the demise of the now-infamous Gulf of Mexico rig alongside the Interior Department and other arms of the government. At a public hearing today, CSB lead investigator Don Holmstrom raised pointed questions about whether the same risk-management failures identified during the board's probe of the 2005 BP blast were behind the Deepwater Horizon blowout."

Elana Schor reports for Greenwire December 15, 2010.
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"WikiLeaks Cables: BP Suffered Blowout on Azerbaijan Gas Platform" (Guardian) [3]