commission co-chair senator bob graham said lax enforcement was partly to blame for the b.p. oil spill. >> our regulators were consistently outmatched. the department of the interior lacked the in-house expertise to effectively enforce regulations. >> reporter: at the economic policy institute, economist lawrence mishel says polls show business owners are worried about lack of demand, not too much regulation. and, mishel adds, when it comes to financial regulation, the goal is to prevent another great recession. >> it was the lack of financial regulation that got us into this recession to begin with. for people to invoke that we don't have jobs because of regulation-- they're the ones who have to answer for why we are 10 million, 12 million jobs in the hole right now. >> reporter: but donohue argues regulatory delays and over- reactions have cost many americans their jobs. and in the case of the gulf of mexico spill, he says regulators have essentially shut down american oilxploration. >> i think they should improve the competence of the regulators, i think they should look a

former democratic senator bob graham fought drilling off florida. william reilly cited the anti-drilling world wildlife fund and francis mckeever in the natural resources defense council, which is supposed to carbon fuels. not a single member with a drilling engineer or expert in oil exploration type knowledge your practices. >> congressman, i would say the use of the word predictable as surprising to me because what was predictable in a few of "the wall street journal" when they wrote their first critical editorial was that we would recommend against future offshore oil and gas development, which we very definitively did not. >> you are recommending a whole new level of iraq or see top of an obviously already failed to perceive that the obvious aim and indefinitely delaying of the production of our nation energy reserves. how much -- what is the economic damage caused by this disaster? do we have a figure on that? >> we know it's in the tens of billions. >> i have an estimate here of worst-case and base case analysis of the economic damage caused b

former democratic senator bob graham fought drilling off florida. william reilly cited the anti-drilling world wildlife fund and francis mckeever in the natural resources defense council, which is supposed to carbon fuels. not a single member with a drilling engineer or expert in oil exploration type knowledge your practices. >> congressman, i would say the use of the word predictable as surprising to me because what was predictable in a few of "the wall street journal" when they wrote their first critical editorial was that we would recommend against future offshore oil and gas development, which we very definitively did not. >> you are recommending a whole new level of iraq or see top of an obviously already failed to perceive that the obvious aim and indefinitely delaying of the production of our nation energy reserves. how much -- what is the economic damage caused by this disaster? do we have a figure on that? >> we know it's in the tens of billions. >> i have an estimate here of worst-case and base case analysis of the economic damage caused b

senator bob graham, a democrat, and republican william reilly, a former head of the e.p.a., are the co-chairs, and they join me to discuss their findings. what led to your conclusion that this was both foreseeable and preventable, senator? >> first, there's been a major transformation in the off-shore oil industry, up to 1990 it was primarily shallow water drilling. since 1990, the industry have been moving in to deeper and deeper inherently riskier areas. the technology to do that has been fabulous. it's like the space program. unfortunately there wasn't a parallel development of safety required for those deeper drillings and the capacity to respond to an accident to, contain it and to limit its consequences. so this was not a surprise that that likely should occur we found that it was an avoidable and preventable tragedy. >> did you find the three main companies involved, trans-ocean, bp, halliburton were cutting corners, saving money, trying to do something in a way that was just skirting on the edge of security? >> the commission identified close to a dozen decisions, very bad decisions e

former democratic senator bob graham fought drilling off florida. william reilly cited the anti-drilling world wildlife fund and francis mckeever in the natural resources defense council, which is supposed to carbon fuels. not a single member with a drilling engineer or expert in oil exploration type knowledge your practices. >> congressman, i would say the use of the word predictable as surprising to me because what was predictable in a few of "the wall street journal" when they wrote their first critical editorial was that we would recommend against future offshore oil and gas development, which we very definitively did not. >> you are recommending a whole new level of iraq or see top of an obviously already failed to perceive that the obvious aim and indefinitely delaying of the production of our nation energy reserves. how much -- what is the economic damage caused by this disaster? do we have a figure on that? >> we know it's in the tens of billions. >> i have an estimate here of worst-case and base case analysis of the economic damage caused b

. >> reporter: co-chair bob graham concluded the blowout was avoidable. >> forget the oil. forget the rigs and everything else. the loss of lives is the biggest tragedy. but on the other side of it is the future of those same employees is very good. >> reporter: drilling permits are still being issued very slowly in the gulf and some believe this report could provide some finality and help get things moving again. the final report will be released sometime next week. in houston, christine dobbin for abc news. >>> the vice principal of an omaha, nebraska high school has died after being shot by a student. police say the gunman, 17-year-old robert butler, opened fire because he was suspended from school. butler later killed himself. the local newspaper reports the gun belonged to butler's father, an omaha police officer. classes at the school are canceled for today. >>> in suburban phoenix, shoppers ran for cover after a gun battle erupted in a mall parking lot. it all started with undercover cops confronting a robbery suspect. as they exchanged fire the mall, of course, was

graham. i will make a brief statement and ask that my testimony be included in the record. i want to begin by saying that with respect to oil and gas we need a resource. it's vital to the economy, in itself, a way of life and a contributor to productivity, jobs, the gdp, and avoiding even more necessity to important international oil markets. this commission believes we can develop offshore oil and gas resources safely. we can do it in the deep water and i could signal that deep water is where it is. that is where the industry has been going and will be going in and even more significant way in the years to come up the country's confidence in offshore oil and gas development has been shattered to read the commission determined that the government and industry both were characterized by complacency. that has attracted a good deal of attention and some criticism. i would just say very briefly that when you have, as i learned from tony heyward, the ceo of bp the week after it took office as the

next we will hear from bob graham. after spending 38 years in public office, he left the senate in 2005. in addition to his service on this panel, he was the co-chair of the national commission on the bp deep water horizon oil spill and on oil drilling. senator, it has been an honor and personal privilege to serve with you on this commission appeared >> thank you very much. let me say it has been an honor to serve on this commission. i have had the privilege of serving on a presidential commission in december -- and several congressional inquiries. iowa been impressed with smith corona's -- i have been impressed with the thoroughness of this commission. as part of our charge, it was appropriate for the commission to review the actions taken by government in response to the developing crisis and to determine if any of those responses contributed or worsened the crisis. we concluded that government was ill-prepared for this disaster. it's inconsistent responses added to the uncertainty and panic we saw during the course