BP: Beyond Prosecution

The arrogance and disregard of human life and the environment of BP is long standing. Is this the best we can do when Big Corporations and Big Oil control government and determine policy?

Worth reading in its entirety --


How Bush's DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP That Threatened to Net Top Officials


Mention the name of the corporation BP to Scott West and two words immediately come to mind: Beyond Prosecution.

On March 2, 2006, West was at his desk when he received a phone call.

"It was one of the employees I spoke to months earlier," West said. "He said 'just as we predicted, there's a leak at the caribou crossing we told you about and it's pretty bad.'"

Even worse, the leak had gone undetected for nearly a week. The leak detection equipment employees had warned BP managers about malfunctioned and for about five days oil spilled out of a hole in the pipeline the size of a pencil eraser. The leak was discovered when an oilfield worker surveying the area smelled petroleum in the air and stepped out of his car to investigate.

"He ended up with a black foot," West said. "That's how bad the spill was."

The oil leak was determined to be caused by "severe corrosion." BP was forced to shut down the pipeline and the processing center where the crude is pumped into the pipeline was closed for about two weeks.

Longtime BP employee Marc Kovac said a couple of weeks after the oil spill that he and his co-workers warned the company numerous times that their aggressive cost-cutting measures would increase the likelihood of accidents, pipeline ruptures and spills.

"For years we've been warning the company about cutting back on maintenance," Kovac said. "We know that this [March 2006 oil spill] could have been prevented."