BP suspended from new U.S. government contracts

[kpete]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - The British oil company BP Plc and its affiliates have been suspended from new contracts with the U.S. government due to the criminal charges in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, BP plead guilty to criminal misconduct in the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, and agreed to pay record penalties of $4.5 billion.

The temporary contract suspension stems from those charges, the EPA said.

"Federal executive branch agencies take these actions to ensure the integrity of federal programs by conducting business only with responsible individuals or companies. Suspensions are a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case," the EPA said in a statement.

In London, BP had no immediate comment. The company recognized the risk that it could be banned from U.S. government contracts when it agreed earlier this month to plead guilty to criminal charges over the spill, but it said at the time that it had not received any indication that government departments would go ahead with such a ban.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-bp-contracts-idUSBRE8AR0M120121128

[savannah43]

1. It's about freaking time!

[Lochloosa]

2. As Biden would say....."This is a big fucking deal'

[wordpix]

3. "The suspension will not affect existing leases." Pretty good treatment of a major criminal

in my book. Why not just pull the existing leases: "You're a criminal, so your current lease agreement is null and void."

Since "corporations are people, my friends," corporate criminals should not get all the perks of regular citizens. Tell them to get out of the Gulf for good.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Speaking of existing leases:

In December 2011, BP acquired 11 newly available leases for resource exploration rights to areas of federal waters in the Gulf and in June 2012 was the high bidder on 43 further leases in the central region of the Gulf.
The company is the largest leaseholder in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:66rAUCkIfo0J:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP+Number+of+US+leases+BP+got&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=ubuntu

[Ikonoklast]

4. And the then-CEO needs to go to prison for it.

As the person with the final say over all BP corporate operations, he is the one that should be held responsible for the willful criminal misconduct of his underlings.

[AldoLeopold]

5. Let me clear my throat

ahem...MUAHAHAHAHAHAH eat it BP!

[They_Live]

6. What happens if BP just changes its name?

That seems to be standard operating procedure in cases such as this. Corporations are not people because you cannot hang them by the neck until dead,

[dipsydoodle]

9. Did Occidental change their's after Piper Alpha ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha

[They_Live]

10. No.

I guess I was thinking of companies with even more blood on their hands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Worldwide

[babylonsister]

8. Rec'd! nt

[locks]

11. Great read

Thanks to a DU'er I read Greg Palast's "Vultures' Picnic: In pursuit of petroleum pigs, power pirates and high-finance carnivores". BP has been behind covered-up spills and bribes not only in US (congress and administrations) but all over the world for decades. Now it will simply work with the other Big Oil corps and cover up its contracts. This journey into the corrupt heart of Big Oil is especially relevant with the recent "record" judgment on BP of 4.5 bil, chump change as compared to the suffering of people and our Gulf Coast. They've spent that much on their lying, disgusting "energy" commercials running every hour on every channel. None, not one mile, of the Gulf Coast has been cleaned up to where people and the environment are protected. And the next spill will be even worse. Every government, every medium, even scientists, environmentalists, the EPA, and PBS have taken their money and drunk the Kool-aid of Big Oil. There have been some courageous whistleblowers around the world but they lost their lives or their jobs and their reputations, just like those who tried to blow the whistle on defense contractors. We have met the devil but he has come in so many forms such as "saving jobs" and "environmental drilling and safe pipelines at home" and 'Mother Nature is at fault' that we will let him destroy our only real Mother.

[dipsydoodle]

12. BP says U.S. preparing deal to lift contract ban

(Reuters) - British oil major BP said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was preparing an agreement that would lift its temporary ban on awarding BP new federal contracts.

"The EPA has informed BP that it is preparing a proposed administrative agreement that, if agreed upon, would effectively resolve and lift this temporary suspension," BP said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The EPA notified BP that such a draft agreement would be available soon."

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-bp-epa-idUKBRE8AR0ZL20121128