"Acceptable industry standards"

WSJ provides us with a much more detailed account of how BP and Halliburton caused the worst manmade environmental catastrophe since Chernobyl.

In an April 18 report to BP, Halliburton warned that if BP didn't use more centering devices, the well would likely have "a SEVERE gas flow problem." Still, BP decided to install fewer of the devices than Halliburton recommended—six instead of 21.

BP said it's still investigating how cementing was done. Halliburton said that it followed BP's instructions, and that while some "were not consistent with industry best practices," they were "within acceptable industry standards."

If your compliance with acceptable industry standards can cause such a huge disaster... obviously the industry standards are utterly unacceptable.

Putting your finger on your nose and saying it wasn't you is not going to help you here.