One that works

More from Bob Bea yesterday at the BP trial:

But when Brock also tried to show that BP took the steps necessary to properly develop the well, including the use of a blowout preventer, Bea's answers didn't quite go as planned.

"A safety conscious operator would want to have in place a BOP?" Brock said. "That works," Bea said, referring to the failure of the preventer on the Macondo well to block off the flow of oil. Testimony on Monday focused on dead batteries and a failed solenoid on the preventer as reasons it didn't work properly.

"And that was approved by MMS?" Brock asked, referring to the federal Minerals Management Service, whose safety regulations are now implemented by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. The Macondo blowout preventer was approved by the MMS. "That works," Bea repeated.

This being New Orleans, there are several circumstances under which I can pick up a new brake tag regardless of whether or not any of the safety features on my vehicle are working properly. So I would have been approved by the regulating agency, technically, but if my brakes fail and I plow into a school knowing all of this... well that's probably "gross negligence."