Boris Johnson,the Mayor of London, this morning became the most senior UK politician to defend BP, saying "anti-British rhetoric" levelled at the company was a matter of "national concern" and that the oil giant was paying "a very, very heavy price" for what had been an accident.
"I would like to see a bit of cool heads rather than endlessly buck-passing and name-calling," he said. "When you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great British company is being continually beaten up on the airwaves."
(Read full article here.)
So Boris Johnson thinks the BP spill was just an accident and that BP is being picked on unfairly. Hey, Johnson! Are you a cousin of BP chief executive Tony (I Just Want My Life Back) Hayward? You must be since both of you have a knack for saying stupid things.
This spill wasn't an accident. It was the result of incompetence, stupidity, greed, arrogance, and a lack of regard for basic drilling safety. Don't believe it? Take a look at The Associate Press' report on BP's oil spill response plan submitted to the US government in 2009. Below are just some of the errors AP found in this report:
1."Claim- BP 'has the capability to respond ...to a worst-case discharge of oil.'
Reality- Six weeks after the rig explosion, BP has not stopped leaking oil."
2. "Claim- BP could marshal more than enough boats to scoop up all the oil before it reached shore.
Reality- Oil reached shore within weeks of spill."
3. "Claim- BP said its response could skim, suck up or otherwise remove 20 million gallons of oil each day from the water.
Reality- That is about how much leaked the first six weeks of the spill; the slick now covers over 3,3000 square miles."
4. "Claim- Only a 21 percent chance of oil reaching Louisiana coast within a month of a spill.
Reality- An oily sheen reached the Mississippi Delta
nine days after the April 20 rig explosion."
5. "Claim- BP's site plan regarding birds, sea turtles or endangered marine mammals claimed 'no adverse impact.'
Reality- More than 400 oiled birds have been treated, while dozens have been found dead and covered in crude."
6. Claim- Professor Peter Lutz is listed as a national wildlife expert.
Reality- He died in 2005."
7. Claim- Under heading 'Sensitive biological resources", the plan list marine mammals including walruses, sea otters, sea lions, and seals.
Reality- None live anywhere near the gulf."
If that doesn't show BP's capricious attitude toward the impact of a major oil spill in the gulf, well, I don't now what does. It also has all the earmarks of a report put together from bits of other Response Plans which makes me think our government's Minerals Management Service has a hand in this. I can just see the agency telling BP to throw something together and submit it just so BP could start drilling right away. And that "get the oil at all cost" and "greed is good" corporate culture the oil industry subscribes to is the reason why this happened in the first.
So, Mr. Boris Johnson, instead blaming the messengers for bringing the news and outcome of BP's arrogance, blame BP, blame Tony Hayward, blame BP's board, blame yourself and all the other government officials. You are the ones who didn't care what BP did as long as the stock kept rising and the dividend checks came in. Your citizens will be suffering monetarily for your greed almost as long as our citizens will be paying for the ecological disaster that greed produced. And don't think that I think we had nothing to do with this; I think the Congressional Hearings will show that our own government policies toward offshore oil drilling were just as culpable.
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