Talk about a double standard. Just as British Petroleum petitions the Obama administration for permission to drill for deepwater oil in the Gulf of Mexico, one of its oil rigs breaks and gets stuck in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. On the one hand, BP says its personnel are well trained and rigs are safer than ever. On the other, BP personnel were not fully prepared for a rig breaking and getting stuck just days ago.

Stage right: “BP is asking regulators to approve a blueprint for new deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since its Macondo well blew out last year, triggering the nation’s worst oil spill….Federal regulators broadly signed off on BP’s plans to drill up to five wells at the site in 2008. In the new filing, BP is asking permission to drill two more wells at Kaskida and change the location of two others.”

Stage left: “BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the rig became stuck in “an inconvenient spot” along Spine Road, a main artery in the network of oil field roads around Prudhoe Bay. Rinehart said the rig became stuck when a wheel broke through the road surface as the rig drove across a section with culverts.”