There’s one aspect of the BP story that most of those angry residents of the Gulf states aren’t aware of. And the president hasn’t had a thing to say about it.
Even as the tar balls hit Gulf beaches, their tax dollars are subsidizing BP and so far, Obama has not shown the slightest indication that he plans to stop their flow into BP coffers, despite the recent call of Public Citizen, a watchdog group, to end the nation’s business dealings with company.
[…]
While the president has been on the verbal warpath, the US military has – with little notice – continued to carry on a major business partnership with BP, despite the company’s poor environmental record.
[…]
In 2009, according to the Defense Energy Support Center, the military awarded $22.5 billion in energy contracts. More than $16 billion of that went to purchasing bulk fuel. Some 10 top petroleum suppliers got the lion’s share, more than $11.5 billion, among them big names like Shell, Exxon Mobil and Valero. The largest contractor, however, was BP, which received more than $2.2 billion – almost 12% of all petroleum-contract dollars awarded by the Pentagon for the year.While one exceptionally powerful department of the federal government has been feeding money into BP (and other oil giants) with abandon, BP has consistently run foul of US government regulators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
According to the Center for Public Integrity, “BP account[ed] for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the [oil] refining industry by government safety inspectors over the past three years.”
Admittedly, not a surprise.
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Ummmm… We kinda need BP to get out of this. Once they fix this crap, go on your warpath. Until then, don’t screw the company up so bad it cant or wont fix it.
Are you saying the US government is corrupt? Nooooooooo… oh wait..
Lip service is all Obama knows how to do. When are we going to learn that voting for people who just tell us what we want to hear is not enough.
He could be relaxing red tape for the clean up effort too. But he has yet to do that. He is all talk and no substance.
BP had an accident. It was an accident. It was probably due to negligence, cheapness, etc, but it was an accident.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending BP at all. Cutting off contracts that were already in place is just stupid. They have agreed to set aside at least $20 Billion to start to pay for their ineptitude. We should not grant BP any new permits at all for oil development or renew their existing permits, since they have proven to be undeserving of our trust.
we should be surprised that one of the worlds largest oil companies has a contract to sell … oil?
This site is like Matt Damon in Team America, the big corporations, they’re so… corporate.
Apparently another company working with BP recommended against their cement casing plan when it was being done. I wonder if that other company will get any credit? Halle Berry Inc or something like that.
Yes to the (some) efficiency in Govt. Military indeed should buy oil from the cheapest and most convenient source be it BP, Exxon, or whatever. Cancel contract with BP? Only if their oil in the part of the world where we are getting it is not the cheapest. Thank you military for saving our tax dollars and not including into the cost nebulous factors like how green contractors are.
Y’all sick of Obama yet?
People who hope BP goes bankrupt, and the government ant the people should stop buying their refined oil, are sad. When an airliner crashes, do any of you cry for them to go out of business, and get pissed when they continue to sell tickets??? I am sure the answer is yes. But really….
Get a grip.
Make yourselve feel better. Go and buy another battery pollution producing Prius.
Driving BP out of business solves nothing. In fact it is counter productive. Grandstand headlines and finger pointing only compound fixing the real issues. Whinners are part of the problem.
All the world’s oil will be pumped until it is gone. Oil will also leak now and again from this activity. Get over it, help clean up, and change safety standards to minimize future spills. Otherwise STFU, you are part of the problem.
Don’t like it? Don’t use petroleum.
Our military has stores of suction devices? What are you trying to imply?
Seems to me the job of the Military is to run the war machine and they/we need oil to do that. So they buy oil. Only relevant issue there is quality and price.
Now, the job of the Fed’s is to regulate the Oil Drilling Co’s so that they do it safely. Its the job of Big Oil to run oil rigs so that they protect their investments and future cash flow. Seems to me both these groups have failed.
Being short sighted is not good for Big Business nor for Governments. Nor for voters and that allows me to say:
VOTE ALL INCUMBENTS OUT OF OFFICE!!!
#10 The Pirate; true that putting BP out of business solves nothing, but temporarily, but decisively absorbing it (a la GM) might be the better deal for all.
At least it would have to pay its own freight from eventual profits, but its pensioners would have some degree of protection, the board could be fired without compensation, the crooked management could be prosecuted and the remaining staff of internal decision makers would have to toe the lines of transparency, frankness and responsibility.
When it got back on track, and all the internal dead wood had been cleared out, it would be returned to independent commerce at a profit to the government.
As a precedent, it would be tremendous. Anything “too big to fail” might also get a huge smack in the face if they see how by behaving badly they may not be “too big to be taken over, fixed, then let out to play later”, presumably when working correctly.
Hopefully, GM will become solvent, pay what we pumped into it, then return to a business mainstream in good shape.
The appropriate way to use governance on these companies that are claiming primacy in American business is to cut out the heart of their “too big to fail” position, showing them that they’re not too big to get smacked in the balls and have their entire board dismissed at a huge individual member loss.
Exact details how to accomplish all this TBD.
Maybe I haven’t been listening but has anyone said, “How can we help you fix this thing?”
You can complain all you want about it, but obviously BP is struggling to fix things.
Now is not the time to play the blame game.
#4 Awake: “BP had an accident. It was an accident. It was probably due to negligence, cheapness, etc, but it was an accident.”
Naw. If you fail to lubricate your wheels and one of them comes off your car at freeway speed causing a 20 car pile-up, wiping out a school bus, a gasoline tanker and 11 lives, it’s not an “accident.”
You can’t call it accidental when you are culpably criminally negligent, especially when you fail to provide safety measures because you’re thinking of how much money you just saved by doing so.
They need to skewer the responsible parties and roast them over a natural gas fire. And it’s beginning to look like that corrupt mind-set went all the way to the top.
Buzz–if any real balls existed, then the better remedy is to enforce regulations to prohibit the bad conduct to begin with. Coming in after the fact is better than a bailout without payback but is more unrealistic. If one has the will to regulate/control then it should be evidenced up front==not a promise to do it in arrears.
Sad Obama wants to regulate what should be illegal. Another Bush Light program that shows Obama’s failed position to far to the right.
VOTE ALL INCUMBENTS OUT OF OFFICE! (and) Big Business is corrupt by definition, and so are its supporters.
Q–“How can we help you fix this thing?”
A–“We don’t need any help with this minor 1000 gal leak. The gulf is large and this leak is nothing by comparison. No help needed here.”
Yes, I’d say you haven’t been listening for quite a while.
There is plenty of blame to spread around the old farts club. unfortunately, all members are untouchable. BP is only partly to blame.
As for the CONTRACTS with BP, they have to run their course unless you want the American public on the hook for ‘breach of contract’ with a dumbass oil company.
I hope many of you understand a few things..
In the past few years..
Blow outs and breaks in BP’s Fuel lines from Alaska threw out the USA.. Not talking about 1-2-3-4 Breaks..
It was estimated that the Alaska Pipeline hadnt been Maintained for about 20 years..
Cutting corners, Lowering the number of Employees, leads to BIGGER PROFITS..
If you watch the prices of Fuel since the 70’s you will see a few interesting points.
Those points were when there was an ALTERNATIVE promised.
Prices dropped
Oil corps bought into the alternative
Inflated the Alternatives Price/costs, to make it seem “not worth the change”.
Then RAISED their OWN prices again.
(who remembers when Propane was a coming alternative, Look at the prices)
I wont get into Fixed MPG on cars. Alternatives to The CLEAN AIR gadgets on all cars in the USA.
I will point to 1 more thing..
YOU, are paying to FIX ALL OF IT.
Dont care if its the Gov paying FROM our pockets..
Or from increased GAS PRICES..
The USA, is the ONLY nation that charges TAX as a fixed amount on Gas. MAX State/fed tax is $0.70 per gallon.
ALL other nations Charge a percentage. Average is 100%.
Explanation:
$5 per gallon Fuel in Canada, is…
$2.50 TAX + $2.50 fuel price.
Fuel in USA at MAX tax..
$3.00-0.70=$2.30 per gallon.
Which does not include the USA SUPPORTING the Fuel corps.
Some of us can make the decision at the pump. Remember BP owns ARCO…
Is there still a strategic oil reserve? Didn’t the US Government sell that off under GWB’s tour? If the US military wants to go to war, it now needs Big Oil’s co-operation. Just adding.
ECA, yes we are paying for everything. That’s the way the economy works. Expenses of producing, transportation and marketing are added to the cost of all products for sale. Why would oil be any different?
The wind is free, but converting it into electricity, maintenance and distributing it to everyone isn’t free. Also, whenever an alternative energy source arises, Americans waddle up to it and devour it like it was deep fried chicken smothered in bacon and cheese. Low supply… lots of demand = high prices. You will NEVER have cheap energy. EVER. What we need is CLEAN energy.
KMFIX, as well as not buying gas from BP stations, don’t drive on any roads made with BP tar, don’t reshingle your house with asphalt derived from BP oil, don’t purchase any plastics made from BP oil, don’t buy any household products that contain petroleum products from BP, don’t eat any food that was delivered by truck using BP diesel, don’t drink any water that was pumped to the reservoir using diesel or gas engines or lubrication derived from BP oil, don’t paint anything that…
23,
but you are thinking of a restricted Limited distribution system for power.
As from a DAM to the rest of the area..
Im thinking of an inline system, where MOST homes have Basic facilities and its SHARED across the local area.
reasoning comes with the idea that a distributed system is not easy to control, and the CORP cant make money from it. So the Corp makes plans to inflate the COST of products that would go INTO creating a distributed system. get the gov to make regulations on SHARING POWER and CREATING alternative power.
Make State regulations that say, you DONT GET PAID for Excess power TO the system..you get CREDITS for power you MAY/WILL use in the future from THEM.
#12 Bobbo, I agree with THIS post. No further endorsements are implied or should be inferred.
Skeptic–If I’m understanding you correctly, there is no way to avoid BP Oil? Gosh, whats a responsible consumer to do?
OMTH–everything is relative. When one of many energy breakthru’s arise, like thin film photovoltaics to shingle your roof with, then when sized right, I can run all the electrical appliances I want to without a thought to any energy bill at all. Basically, a one time price for energy.
That would be a good thing. How would BP screw me on that one?
#26–Faxon==well, as you get off on being wrong most of the time, loudly wrong, belligerently wrong, insultingly wrong most of the time, but not knee jerkingly automatically gain saying wrong all the time, I expect welcome the oddity and expect nothing else.
Faxoff.
This is interesting on several levels:
Seismologists charged with manslaughter – for failing to accurately predict the L’Aquila earthquake. 300 died. “They shoulda told the community so they could flee.”
And so–who decides about corporate negligence when the deaths aren’t so immediate? Is this why there are no Italian Deep Ocean Drillers?
Hah, hah. Yes, causation is a political judgment. And pasta grows on trees.
http://techeye.net/science/seismologists-charged-with-manslaughter?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techeye+%28Tech+Eye%29#ixzz0rRL3ulLm
#26, #12..
AND as a corp..
you want the HIGHEST GAIN/profit for your dollar.
but the Gov. watches over your dealings..
And your profit margins are looking abit Interesting to regulators..
So, how do you Make it “ALRIGHT” to keep raising prices?
Consider that you have Cut personnel and every corner you can, just to give better stock prices and to Raise your wages.
(which means the profits ARNT going back into the company to keep things NEW and IMPROVED).
In all the BS floating around, has there been ANY reasoning of WHAT HAPPENED?
i MIGHT AS WELL CLAIM That a Leprechaun Flew Airplanes into the WTB, as there is 1 listed on the passenger list.
How about the person that dies from pneumonia, as listed on his death certificate?? but doesnt list that he was suffering from Aids.
Its always fun to debate this. So what they were(PROBABLY) pushing the equipment and Over pressuring the system. but WHO asked them to. WHO told them NOT TO(no body, probably).
Who asked 11 people to risk their lives?