http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404118.html

The Interior Department exempted BP’s calamitous Gulf of Mexico drilling operation from a detailed environmental impact analysis last year, according to government documents, after three reviews of the area concluded that a massive oil spill was unlikely.

The decision by the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP’s lease at Deepwater Horizon a “categorical exclusion” from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 — and BP’s lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions — show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

On a side note:

Obama biggest recipient of BP cash

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36783.html

The fall political TV spots are writing themselves.