Oil spill reporting honor code? What?

Isn't trusting the oil industry to turn itself in for spills like asking the proverbial fox to guard the hen house? According to a Yahoo News story, the U.S. oil pollution reporting system relies upon a "virtual honor code" that allows industry the responsibility to turn itself in whenever it is at fault for an accident. Companies are fully aware that it is highly unlikely that a federal inspector will ever investigate, the report adds, calling this the "fatal flaw" of the country's spill reporting system. This honor code may well have played a role in the underreporting of an Anglo-Suisse "leak" that could have resulted in oil washing up on a 30 mile stretch of Louisiana's shoreline.