Crude oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at a consistently alarming and under-inflated rate; one of the worst environmental catastrophes in American history which exacerbates the nation and the world. And with the repeated ham-fisted failure of those responsible for insuring that the damage to the coast is minimized, American anger festers.

Big Oil—in damage control mode—has launched a blitzkrieg of AM radio commercials to remind Americans not to fret about this one-in-a-million blunder and, more importantly, not to retire their car keys and discontinue driving. BP has promised to do all in its financial might to right what went wrong — and we are, of course, supposed to take them at their word even though they have been lying from the get-go of this crisis. President Barack Obama has demanded and received “collateral” in the form of a $20 billion escrow account for the initial loss of earnings to local area businesses and employees—much to the odd and predictable chagrin of the far right. And cue Congress; always sternly present after a crisis like a wrinkled shark who has just smelled blood, eager to cast blame upon everyone and everything but themselves. The inevitable whack-a-mole knee-jerk by Congress ought to focus on two things: regulation and corruption.

According to the New York Times, “Internal BP documents show a pattern of risky choices made to save time and money in the weeks before the disastrous April 20 blowout.” The inferior methods of production employed by BP reportedly saved them between $7 and $10 million dollars. Prior to the Deepwater Horizon explosion, a BP official in an e-mail, dismissed the tremendous risks of negligently continuing with the haphazard plan: “who cares, it’s done, end of story, will probably be fine.” The calculated disdain of BP’s management, and the devastation, which will wreak havoc on the Gulf of Mexico for decades, should give pause to future corporations considering undercutting safety in order to maximize profit. However, this isn’t BP’s premier disaster, and to imagine that (if the company manages to stay afloat) this will be the last ecological nightmare BP, or any other corporation will subject upon America is naïve.

The fact that a company incorporated risky business tactics in order to save money is to be expected. Big Oil can be considered as a group of companies designed to make a profit and profit will always trump ethics in this atmosphere. Allowing Big Oil to freely regulate themselves, and expressing astonishment that they undermined safety in order to save money, is like putting a group of children in a room full of chocolate, leaving for an hour, and feigning shock that the chocolate has vanished. As the investigation continues to illuminate the cozy relationship enjoyed by Big Oil from the U.S. government, it should (hopefully) force voters to realize that, by their very nature, corporations are incapable of regulating themselves entirely on their own. Of course, lobbying proceeds to Congress always helps to insure the counterpoint that Big Oil should remain effectively autonomous.

And so, this leads to the second focus which Congress should laser in on while chiding BP, namely corruption. According to Time, “The Minerals Management Service (MMS), the Interior Department agency meant to oversee offshore drilling, did far too little for far too long, creating a laissez-fair atmosphere in which a major accident was just waiting to happen.” President Obama noted on May 27th, “The oil industry’s cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship with government regulators meant little or no regulation at all.” Furthermore, “a 2008 report by the Interior Department’s inspector general found that MMS employees had used drugs, accepted gifts from and had sexual relationships with energy-company representatives,”—now, that sounds like my kind of probation officer!

So, the American public has come to learn Big Oil has proven itself untrustworthy in self-regulation, and the government officials tasked with overseeing Big Oil are in desperate need of oversight themselves. At this point it should be more than evident that drastic steps are required to break the cycle of corruption and ineptitude shared by both businesses and government agencies alike. Of course, the real problem is arriving at a consensus on what steps are needed, what steps will work, and whether or not Congress can muster the resolve to break their status quo gridlock and enact legislation that benefits the American people—not Big Oil.

– Warren Hale is a U. Nebraska senior news-editorial and broadcasting major.