By Kristen Hays
Houston - The United States Chemical Safety Board is launching an investigation into the root causes of the BP oil spill disaster that killed 11 workers and threatens much of the US Gulf Coast.
The investigation joins a slew of others, including those by President Barack Obama's special commission, the US Coast Guard, the US Department of Justice and congressional committees.
CSB chairperson John Bresland said in a letter to US House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders that the case will be handled by investigators who examined BP's refinery safety practices in a two-year probe of a deadly 2005 explosion at the company's Texas City, Texas, refinery.
Bresland said the agency will examine what led to the April 20 explosion on Transocean's Deepwater Horizon rig, which had drilled an exploratory well according to BP's design.
The CSB is an independent agency with no enforcement power, modelled after the National Transportation Safety Board. Both can recommend safety fixes and issue detailed, sometimes harsh analyses of why a disaster happened.
At the conclusion of its Texas City investigation, the CSB issued a scathing, lengthy report about BP's lax safety practices and a culture of slashing costs and cutting corners.
BP has consistently acknowledged cost cutting at the refinery but denied a link between such cuts and the explosion. - Reuters