As with the BP Macondo well blow-out and now the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, it seems to take a disaster to bring attention to the fact that many rules and regulations, enacted to protect the public and the environment are not being enforced.
But even after these major incidents and despite the huge amount of political grand-standing and attention initially, with promises of immediate investigation and remedial action, in reality, it's soon back to business as usual.
In the case of the Macondo well blow-out precarious work is proceeding without the safety measures that were supposed to be in place back in 2000 but still aren't, such as a means similar to www.dwoc.info to keep pollution out of the environment.
With the San Bruno incident it seems that the gas pipe lines are back in operation and everyone is allowed back into the devastated neighborhood even though the cause of the explosion has not been officially identified and it seems implausible that the structural integrity of all of the remaining pipeline system has been verified.
There must be real and immediate measures enacted to inspect and evaluate the safety of this aging infrastructure and the many thousands of miles of gas pipelines that are literally everywhere in the USA.