Congress blames BP cost-cutting for Gulf oil leak disaster (& 11 Deaths)

[kpete]

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — BP knew its Macondo well was troublesome in the days leading up to a fatal April 20 blowout, congressional investigators found, but the company "appears to have made multiple decisions for economic reasons that increased the danger of a catastrophic well failure."

From the company's uncommon well design to its fatal decision not to circulate drilling mud, which could have cleared out pockets of gas, and the lack of critical testing, which could have pinpointed problems with its cementing, the company had many points at which it could have prevented an explosion, investigators with the House Energy and Commerce Committee have found.

Instead, the company violated industry guidelines and proceeded "despite warnings from BP's own personnel and its contractors," said the chairman of the committee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and the chairman of the investigative subcommittee that handled the probe, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.

Those decisions led to 11 deaths and the worst oil spill in U.S. history and will continue to have an effect on the environment and the future of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the two wrote in a letter to BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward that was released Monday.


Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/14/95836/congress-bp-made-risky-decisions.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. ..and what are they going to do about it???

[Dappleganger]

6. Give 'em the stank eye. nt

[inna]

2. K&R

I wish they used stronger language though ("criminal negligence" instead of "complacency", etc.)

[killbotfactory]

3. This is how every major corporation operates

And this is how companies have always behaved even before Marx wrote Das Kapital. Penny-wise, pound-foolish. They will always make the public pay for the externalities if they can get away with it. They can always get away with it if there are enough politicians in their pocket, or they are big enough to bring down large segments of the economy with them, since they can use that threat to influence our political system and escape the full consequences of their actions.

It would help if there is a union that is strong enough to protect the workers from the management playing these types of games in the first place.

[progrocktv]

4. So now what????

More meetings to discuss the situation AGAIN?!?!?!

[City Lights]

5. Which decision makers will be held responsible?

And what will their punishment be?