As Joe Nocera pointed out in his column from April 14th,
"money solves everything." BP has a horrific record. "...time after time over the past 15 years, BP put profits over safety and created dangerous conditions for its workers, which resulted in serious industrial accidents that brought criminal investigations. Every time, BP wiggled out of trouble by paying money and promising to do better — and then went right back to its recidivist ways.
Abrahm Lustgarten, author of the book Run to Failure: BP and the Making of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster (cited by Nocera in his column), argues with a ton of data in an OpEd piece in the April 19th NY Times that
"BP has already tested the effectiveness of lesser consequences, and its track record proves that the most severe punishments the courts and the United States government have been willing to mete out amount to a slap on the wrist."
Finally, investigative reporter Greg Palast charges in an article at the EcoWatch website that BP, two yers before the blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, illegally covered up (and continues to cover up, in collusion with the government of Azerbaijan) a nearly-identical blowout in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Baku. If these allegations are true, without a doubt a BP executive perjured himself in Congressional testimony a few months before the Gulf blow-out. That is prosecutable. Ask Roger Clements.
At least 26 BP employees have been killed in accidents since 2005. The long-term cost in human and animal lives of the Gulf disaster is probably unknowable, as is the complete story of the environmental damage. And nobody has yet been held accountable. BP has paid fines and they've paid some cleanup costs, but these are apparently just viewed as the cost of doing business.
To quote Nocera again, "Prison is what makes the difference. Otherwise, it’s only money"
2 comments:
Sounds compelling.
I don't think corporate or other individuals should be able to violate the laws or to kill people through intentional negligence.
When I was dealing with the utility in Brazil, they told me that there were something like 20 fatalities among their employees in the previous year. They thought they might want to move to different work practices. But, not that would cost much.
When there are work practices that have been safely implemented over decades that save lives, I think that should be encouraged, too.
Seems like the BP stuff falls in the same category? Just more suited to comment by the NYT?
Bob, You've never told me about your experience with the Brazilian utility.
Currently Brasil has high standards for off-shore oil operations, and very low tolerance for leaks. Unless something has happened in this matter that I missed, about eleven Shell Oil representatives from the U.S. have had their passports seized by the Brazilian government pending charges related to an oil spill off the coast of Rio. (I think it was Shell; might have been a different oil company.)
Not sure if I follow your last two paragraphs. Are you making that complaint I used to hear our parents' generation make about "how come the newspapers never report any good news?"
It would make an interesting story, I guess. I can see the headline now: "Corporation Takes Steps to Kill Fewer Employees."
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