Gary,
No sense in beating yourself up over what you were believing and what now becomes a bit more visible once the curtain is pulled back. Every company operates this way, for the most part, in every industry. Look at all the recent news and problems with Toyota. Different industry, same sorts of problems. One just has to remember that they also spend tons of money in PR and marketing, and that is money that could be better spent on actual safety and production improvements, but it is not. Amoco and Arco were no better before BP bought their assets and problems, but once BP owned those assets, they had a responsibility to manage them safely. They chose to spend less on that aspect, and run those operations differently because they were eager to respond to the other "responsibility" of return to their shareholders. This is why this entire thing has no easy fixes. Were companies to follow the rules and regulations to the letter, or even exceed some of them for safety and environmental concerns, we would not be seeing these multi-billion dollar quarterly profits, and then shareholders would be angry and complaining about their investments. There are some delicate balances needed to appease more sides, and many companies fail at this, but we only hear about it when something goes horribly wrong, and light is then shed on all aspects of how money is made, what rules were not followed, etc. For the most part, this ugly dance is not going to change. If more regulations are put in, more ways will be found to get around them or how to abuse others less obviously to make the needed profit. As I mentioned, there are plenty of rules and regulations already in place. They are not being properly enforced in many areas. That has to change, but it will be difficult to do as long as the demand forces companies to make tough choices, which we are constantly reminded are not always good, noble or proper choices. I think a more realistic approach is to start holding people directly responsible, at the top, and not letting them hide behind corporate laws in ways that shield them from responsibilities in these disastrous situations. Corporate laws protections and stuff is great when things are running smoothly, but it really comes into question when you start to see what abuses and breakdowns can result in after disasters like this.
Sorry to sound so "preachy" or "noble" in how I talk about some of this, but having been in many of the boardrooms, planning rooms, and even out on the drilling decks of many of these companies, my eyes were opened very widely about just how dirty this entire business is, both physically and philosophically. As long as there is demand for this resource, and demand by shareholders to show profitability, and demand by consumers for lower prices and more product, things are going to stay ugly.
LJ