[Brilliant]

So why did the Obama administration not require them to have this device? What good is government if it doesn’t do anything?

[Always Right]

If the other devices failed to trigger it, I kind of doubt a remote control device would have. The problem was probably with the shut off device, not the switch.

[Non-Sequitur]

Business involves weighing risks. You weigh the odds of not spending the half a million against the risk of major costs if something goes wrong. Well, something went wrong this time and BP lost their bet. By saving %500,000 they’re going to pay out billions.

[Jean S]

How about a little test here re examiner.com. When I view their links I see Milwaukee Examiner. Others see the same articles but with locations close to them.

Examiner.com reads IP addys and customizes your view. That is deceptive imo.

[Sacajaweau]

Read the last couple of lines above...think about sabotage...dead men tell no tales..

Let's have the names of all who died and where they were at the time of the explosion.

The big boys were on board...this was a planned day...perfect for sabotage

[FTJM]

Acoustic triggers would not have worked because the Blowout Preventer failed. This is the Left's talking point to blame Cheney and Bush for not requiring them. Their effectiveness is uncertain, the UK doesn't not require them but BP used them anyway in the UK and could have used one in the Gulf. ROVs are required in the US, and were used.

Meanwhile, BP gave more to Obama than any other candidate in the past 20 years, received exemptions from the Obama admin and lobbied for wider exemptions before the spill. After the spill, the Obama admin gave BP approval for two projects without exemptions. MMS regularly inspected the rig and could have increased requirements AT ANY TIME.

This rests squarely on the Obama admin. "Blame Bush" won't work.

[Balding_Eagle]

This is nothing more than a sensor, not a valve, which would send a signal to a valve.

It looks like it was the valve that failed, so this sensor would have been usless.

[VastRWCon]

Its not an “oil spill”... I wish people would stop calling it that. Nothing was spilled, natural oil is leaking from a yes a man made oil well, but what is leaking is natural oil not man made oil like from a refinary. If a tanker sank and cracked in half, and refined oil spilled, then yes that would be an oil spill. Just sayin...

[TigersEye]

$500K device MAY have prevented oil spill

May is the key word. The cause of the failure is still unknown so any talk of how it could have been prevented is pure speculation.

[deport]

Lots of specualtion as to possible problems or causes for the disaster...

Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused by string of human, mechanical errors: reports

A cascade of human and mechanical failures likely caused last month's deadly offshore rig explosion and an undersea oil gusher that could be the worst U.S. environmental disaster, according to data gathered by congressional investigators and reviewed by experts.

• According to information from BP, Transocean, and rig contractor Halliburton Co gathered by investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, rig workers pressed ahead to put the finishing touches on the well despite potentially alarming test results that signaled a buildup of gas pressure deep in the well's reservoir.

• And on the ocean floor, a 450-ton series of valves and pipes called a blowout preventer -- meant to be the last line of defense in the event of a blowout -- was disabled after being significantly modified.

• On the Deepwater Horizon, three of those systems -- the blowout preventer, the metal casing within the well and the cement that held it in place -- all likely failed, according to testimony from company officials and data gathered by investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

• Earlier in the day, well pressure tests showed an imbalance between the drill pipe and kill and choke lines running from the drill deck to the blowout preventer. The pressure in the drill pipe was 1,400 pounds per square inch (PSI), while the choke and kill lines read zero PSI, Waxman said.

• "They knew there was something wrong because the pressure in the kill and choke lines was not correct," Nagarajaiah said. "That should have alerted them." But according to Waxman, workers performed additional tests and at 8 p.m. CDT "company officials determined that the additional results justified ending the test and proceeding with well operations." "I'm a little shocked that they proceeded at that point," said Philip Johnson, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of Alabama. "It sounds like they never got an adequate low pressure test and someone decided to go ahead and displace the mud," Johnson said. "That sounds like a pretty serious mistake."

• Once the well exploded in a green flash, rig workers tried to activate the blowout preventer on the ocean floor, designed as a fail-safe to choke off the well.

• But officials from Cameron International Corp, which manufactured the device, told committee staff that a key hydraulic system meant to supply emergency power was disabled.

• And another key device component designed to clamp down around the drill pipe and seal any leak -- known as a variable bore ram -- had been replaced by a useless test ram, according to Representative Bart Stupak, chairman of the the Energy and Commerce Committee's investigations subcommittee.

[TXnMA]

That ignorant "writer", Gregory Patin , (like many many others) needs to learn the divverence between "may have" and "might have".

Translation of the headline as written:"$500K device possibly deserves credit for preventing oil spill."

Stupid, ignorant "journalist"!