We knew spills are bad before the Deepwater Horizon spill, however the estimates of environmental damage (for the worst case scenario foreseen) were far smaller

We knew spills are bad before the Deepwater Horizon spill, however the estimates of environmental damage (for the worst case scenario foreseen) were far smaller than what has already occurred with the Deepwater Horizon spill. Why? Because spills of the magnitude of this one are quite rare. But, like any low probability event, as the time horizon increases the probability approaches 1. Obama knows that another spill is very unlikely to happen soon, so he is under no pressure to create a new regulatory environment that actually reduces that probability. The gulf is a public resource, and so the question for the American people should be something along the lines of: If we are likely to get a Deepwater Horizon level spill every 20 years, should we still allow drilling? My guess is that (barring misinformation) most Americans would agree that we should absolutely not allow any offshore drilling at all. Offshore drilling in the US does not have a meaningful impact on oil/gas prices as experienced by consumers. It simply enriches the firms that extract that oil, but not enough is extracted to significantly impact the market price of a global commodity. Supporters of offshore drilling claim that gas would be $10 at the pump without it... which is total nonsense. If anything we'd see about a $0.05 increase per gallon at the pump. What is your explanation for why Obama is not doing more to create systematic reforms that decrease the chances of another spill? It sounds like you think he wisely views the risk as acceptably low.