I'm not really sure on this one.  As far as I can tell the whole project was paid for by British Petroleum, but let's take a step back and define the problem.  The Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig was built in 2001, after Dick Cheney relaxed regulations, safety and redundancy for the industry he used to rule.  Obama shares a part of the blame, since his administration approved the structure in 2009, choosing not to force BP to outfit the rig with a back-up system.  However, the actual monitoring of the drill was outsourced to Houston as early as 2oo2.  Let's see.  Which major oil company/weapons contractor is based in Houston?  Did I mention that Deepwater Horizon flew the flag of the Marshall Islands?  Technically, this rig was based a few hundred miles off the coast of Australia.  BP accepts full responsibility while maintaining they did absolutely nothing wrong.  The group in charge of actually running the facility, Transocean, might end up footing the bill.  I'll let you know when I figure out exactly how this is all Halliburton's fault.

But you know what really sucks?  The tragedy is driving up the price of oil, with the result that BP makes twice the amount they lose every day.  That's a pretty bold statement for me to make, since no one even knows exactly how much oil is pouring into the Gulf every day.  Probably hundreds of thousands of gallons.  So blame BP, just to get them cleaning.  A company will always choose the path of maximum profit.  Oil money is just too addicting.