My teacher had me read this article about the oil spill and how the BP failed to prevent it, and it looks like they deserved to have to pay 20 million dollars for it. The reason that the oil spill started was that the BP company neglected to send so called "pigs" through the pipeline.  These pigs were the things that kept bacteria out of the pipe so oil spills like this wouldn't happen.  The BP agents decided that it wasn't necessary to do this anymore, so they stopped the pig program altogether. The hole in the pipeline wasn't much bigger than an almond, but it had enough time to make a rather large spill, one that cost the BP company 20 million dollars when they pled guilty.

I think that it is awful that people do this.   When people are given the opportunity to supervise themselves they usually slack off and say they did great.  The BP industry deserved what happened to them, and next time they should pay more attention to the pipeline.