Oil Crises and Policy Continuity: A History of Failure to Change

In the summer of 2010, an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed eleven workers and produced a massive oil spill. The spill ultimately released more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, prompting characterizations of it as "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced." The event triggered strong public calls to reconsider existing energy policies and on June 15, President Obama stated that "the time to embrace a clean energy future is now." However, since then, very little has changed in terms of American energy policies. While the spill itself constituted a unique disaster, the muted long-term reaction follows a historical pattern of failure to dramatically change energy policies in the wake of oil crises.