Frank Patton is the unlicensed MMS engineer who approved the BP drilling plan. During his May 11, 2010 testimony (see pages 252-314) to the Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation, he admitted, (see pages 274-76), that he failed to ensure the BP Drilling Plan complied with federal regulation at 30 C.F.R. §250.416(e), because it did not contain the required information about the design and performance adequacy of the blow-out preventer. The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which live-blogged the hearing, described his testimony here.
If MMS required its engineers to be PE’s, then Mr. Patton would have been required to “blow whistles,” publicly if necessary, to prevent BP’s inadequate drilling plan from being approved. This could well has resulted in his being fired or otherwise discriminated against at MMS, given widespread, longstanding, MMS corruption. However, had MMS required Mr. Patton to be a PE, then anyone could now file a professional misconduct complaint against him with the Louisiana Professional Engineering Licensing Board, for his professional negligence/incompetence in approving a plan that failed to comply with federal regulation. If he lost his PE license as a result, then MMS could fire him. If he had been a PE, Frank Patton would have made sure the BP drilling plan contained the required information about its blowout preventer and perhaps this unprecedented disaster is averted....
The federal government has a duty to protect American health and safety, at work and elsewhere, including our environment. PE’s, by law, must “hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public in the performance of professional duty.” That federal agencies exempt their engineers from having the legal obligations of PE’s is nonsensical and a contributing cause to the disaster the Gulf and many other accidents and disasters, such as the recent Upper Big Branch mine disaster which killed 29 in West Virginia.
Here is a formula we can all live with:
Federal PE licensure + reformed federal whistleblower protection = much improved workplace and public health and safety in America.
Joe Carson, PE, Chairman OSC Watch Steering Committee, multiple time “prevailing” whistleblower in Department of Energy
http://www.whistleblowersblog.org/2010/06/articles/whistleblowers-government-empl/the-role-of-federal-employee-whistleblowers-in-protecting-public-heath-and-safety/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WhistleblowerProtectionBlog+(Whistleblower+Protection+Blog)