More than a year after deadly blast, BP still paying the cost

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/4538

More than a year after deadly blast, BP still paying the cost

More than a year has passed since the BP Texas City refinery blast that killed 15 and injured more than 170 employees - and the financial costs keep rising. The company has announced it plans to pay an additional $400 million to cover compensation claims. Added up with repair costs and lost profits, the oil company is looking at more than $2 billion in costs. Meanwhile, the US Chemical Safety Board has said that leading up to the blast the company failed on many fronts. BP failed to maintain equipment and instruments and had cut training staff by 73 percent. The board concluded that those cuts, as part of 25 percent reduction in fixed costs, played a role in maintaining the plants integrity and could have been a contributor to the blast.