BP Found 'Grossly Negligent' for Gulf Disaster. No Big Deal

September 8, 2014

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNews.com

If BP were a sovereign country its revenues would rank close to the top ten countries in the world, just behind Russia’s, just ahead of India’s.

A company that wealthy, with so much economic and political power, is bound to feel “sovereign.” That is, it can do any damn thing it pleases. BP’s history is chock full of such examples.

About 60 years ago a new nationalistic government of Iran kicked BP out of its country. But BP was up to the challenge. BP convinced the U.S. government, through the CIA, to overthrow that government and install the western-friendly shah. BP got its oil rights back and we wound up with an Islamic revolution.

During the past few years, BP has paid fines to the U.S. government and compensation to countless individuals for blowing up a refinery in Texas, irresponsible management of the Alaska pipeline, and other instances of needless death and destruction. No matter, in relation to its profits, the fines were akin to parking tickets. Admissions of guilt for dead workers brought no threats of jail time for any executives.

Since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico BP has paid out around $40 billion in clean-up costs and damage claims. The other day a federal judge found BP “grossly negligent” under terms of the Clean Water Act, a decision that theoretically could cost the company up to $18 billion more. BP has reserved $3.5 billion to pay that claim. If history is any guide, BP’s actual penalty will be more along the lines BP expects and far less than justice demands.

Through appeals and other legal maneuvering Exxon Mobil managed to stall paying original judgments for negligence in the Alaska Exxon Valdez disaster for 20 years. In the end a compliant Supreme Court awarded pennies on the dollar to victims who were still alive to collect.

Financial market confidence that BP will get off paying no more than $3.5 billion explains why the company’s stock barely moved on news of the judgment. One financial research company even raised its recommendation from “neutral” to “buy.” BP is on track to bring in $10 to $12 billion in profits this year.

I’ve just finished reading the 153-page verdict handed down by United States District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier, That document actually is fairly easy reading, even for those of us unschooled in the ways of underwater oil drilling. And the message is unmistakable: the verdict fits the crime.

Over the course of many weeks, days, and even up until the final minutes, BP could have taken action to prevent the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, the deaths of 11 crew members, and the resulting destruction of the sea life, wildlife, on-shore resources and financial well-being of tens of thousands of innocent people.

This was not just a matter of an errant employee throwing a match into the wrong fuel can. Time after time, faced with key decisions, BP employees opted to bypass the safer choices, best industry practices, and even the company’s own written rule book trying to complete drilling in an extraordinarily difficult situation.

The job was far over budget and 54 days behind schedule. Each day was costing the company another million dollars. The pressure was on to reach the required production depth, cap the well for later service, and move on to the next site.

In the end, the Transocean crew performed just as badly. Transocean owned the offshore platform and managed it for BP. Judge Barbier assigns Transocean its share of the blame, but clearly this was BP’s job from start to finish.

Being found grossly negligent in causing one of the greatest environmental disasters in history won’t shake the pillars of this habitual scofflaw. In fact, only days after that verdict, BP won 27 new offshore drilling lots in the very same Gulf of Mexico, most of them in the Gulf’s deepest water formations. The lots were awarded in a U.S. government auction.

How is it, you might ask, that BP, with such a shoddy safety record, could be allowed back into the scene of its historic crime? Well, in April, the U.S. government lifted that ban after BP promised never, ever, ever, to be negligent again, and to hire an independent auditor to ensure compliance.

In other words, the Obama administration caved in to the power of Big Oil, just as so many national and state leaders have through the years.

One more interesting fact about this ugly episode. To defend itself against a multitude of other suits still in play, BP has hired a law firm that employs the sons of Supreme Court Justices Anthony Scalia and Samuel Alito.

Good luck, all of you out there who have legitimate claims against BP.

There are many reasons why the world should be moving at warp speed toward deploying energy sources that will supplant oil and gas. None of those reasons is more important than weakening the iron grip Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell, and others in that too-big-to-control industry have on our economic system, political system, and environmental future.

(Joe Rothstein can be contacted at [email protected])