This paper analyzes the environmental and safety risks from offshore drilling in the wake of the Gulf Coast spill, showing how the current regulatory approach fails to address human factors that cut across the technological redundancies mandated by current rules.  The paper compares the regulatory status quo with two alternative strategies, one that requires firms to develop detailed management systems and the other that would require drilling firms to pay “safety deposits” that would provide meaningful, new incentives for firms to implement effective risk management.