The Presidential Oil Spill Commission has released their final report on the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Basically, they see the problems that manifested on the Deepwater Horizon well to be systemic, and ensuring the safety of rig workers and the US coastline depends on overhauling the industry completely.

Just when you thought the people of Louisiana couldn’t possibly take another shot to the face, there’s another one coming. It turns out that people who received claim money from BP could see that money taxed at the highest possible rate because the BP oil disaster wasn’t officially declared a disaster.

Ralph Hall (R-TX) is the unassuming new chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee. Like many Americans these days, Hall considers the pinnacle of American advancement in science and technology to be ‘splosions. There’s no way to read his praise of the BP oil spill – that’s not a typo, I wrote “praise” – in anything approaching a good way.

The oil is actually all there for the counting. No bacteria ate it. It has settled at the bottom of the Gulf, and it’s devastating the local ecosystem.

I think it was the timing of the end of the torture investigation that hurts most of all. Just days ago, Harold Koh was boasting of the Durham investigation to the UN. Then Bush started his dog and pony show, including his proud admission to have ordered up torture. All of which made today’s announcement, that no one will be charged for covering up evidence of torture, almost anti-climactic.

Of course no one will be charged for destroying the evidence of torture! Our country has spun so far beyond holding the criminals who run our country accountable that even the notion of accountability for torture was becoming quaint and musty while we waited and screamed for some kind of acknowledgment that Durham had let the statute of limitations on the torture tape destruction expire. I doubt they would have even marked the moment–yet another criminal investigation of the Bush Administration ending in nothing–it if weren’t for the big stink bmaz has been making. Well, maybe that’s not right–after all, Bob Bennett was bound to do a very public victory lap, because that’s what he’s paid for.

Halliburton and the other companies involved, like Transocean, have been pointing the finger at BP, and vice versa. At stake is responsibility for the tens in billions in expected fines for violating the Clean Water Act and other environmental statutes, as well as claims from individuals seeking damages.

The Oil Spill Commission’s Twitter feed actually approvingly tweeted out stories about this report, so they want it to be well-known that the government screwed up.

Many penalties under the Clean Air Act base their amounts on a per-barrel rate. As much as $4,300 a barrel could be owed to the government by BP, especially if they were found liable of gross negligence in the disaster, so this increase could mean up to $1.29 billion to BP’s bottom line.

The White House, the FDA and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board are teaming up with a group of celebrity chefs to promote the eating of Gulf Seafood.

The executive summary and the full investigation rely heavily on jargon, but they basically describe a systemic failure. However, BP cleverly sidesteps the question of well design, for which they have personal responsibility, and basically looks at the incidents on the Deepwater Horizon in a vacuum.