suffering : economic , environmental and emotional . So as the `` Big Muddy '' fights the `` Big Cruddy , '' how do we assess the players ? And what actions should be taken against rigged disasters , both once and future ? First , we must hold BP accountable and responsible . Was it an accident ? Only if we define `` accident '' as negligence . The failure of the `` shear ram , '' the set of steel blades intended to slash through a pipe at the top of a well and close off the flow of crude , should not have surprised BP or the corporations that work for it . Eight years ago , the Minerals Management Service found that 50 percent of the shear rams tested failed . So calling the failure of the `` last resort device '' an accident is like calling the damage caused by a drunken driver an accident . Failure to take the proper precautions is not an accident ; it 's negligence . BP has rightly accepted responsibility . We may grant the company a skeptical benefit of the doubt regarding its willingness to pay for the
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- I spent a restless night , worrying that another man-made disaster might devastate my beloved hometown , New Orleans , just as its post-Katrina motto `` Recover , Rebuild , Rebirth '' was becoming real . The oil spill could n't come at a worse time . Everybody was so up , waiting for the inauguration of our newly elected Mayor Mitch Landrieu . The BP oil spill threatens New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast in a way that 's more insidious than Hurricane Katrina . After all , the failure of the levees and the response from the previous administration , widely criticized for incompetence and indifference , followed an act of nature : the destruction , immediate ; the impact , obvious ; and the pain and suffering , visible to all . The BP disaster has only one cause : human greed , and the almost inevitable result , negligence . The immediate tragedy was that 11 people died . But the destruction that will result from BP 's `` crude river '' will be long-term and the impact far from obvious . The `` crude river '' will spawn streams of