Posts Tagged ‘gulf of mexico’

July26

BP’s ‘disappointing’ profits — still sky-high

By: Dorry Samuels

Poor BP. The multibillion-dollar oil company that has continued to pollute our waters and ignore the safety of its workers just can’t win.

This morning, BP reported its disappointing profits for the second quarter: only $5.6 billion. Boo hoo.

Oh, wait. As Think Progress points out:

Despite making $11 billion in profits in just 2011 alone, BP and its other Big Oil allies continue to aggressively lobby Congress to maintain their billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks. A quick look at some other key facts:

  • BP has already spent $2 million lobbying Congress this year.
  • BP has made more than $40,000 in political contributions in just 2011, with 93 percent going to Republicans.
  • The Big Five oil companies — BP, Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell — made more than $900 billion in profits (figure in 2011 dollars) – almost a trillion dollars – over the previous decade.

Then take into consideration that of the $20 billion BP allotted for its escrow fund to repay the victims of its devastating oil spill last summer, the company has doled out only $4 billion. And if that weren’t bad enough, BP wants to stop paying the Gulf’s victims because “the tourism industry is booming, all federal fishing grounds have reopened, and the shrimp catch has been plentiful.”

I really wonder who’s looking after the company’s PR because this is outrageous.

Posted in: Energy, Environment0 comments

April4

As Transocean touts its best year in safety, government has amnesia about Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill

By: Dorry Samuels

It’s like they took a tip from the Wall Street banksters after they crashed the economy. Only this time, it’s the oil execs.

Transocean decided to pat itself on the back for a job well done in 2010 and touted its “best year in safety.” Yes, for 2010. For those keeping score, that was the same year that its oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and killed 11 workers.

But the company’s executives did such a great job the rest of the year that apparently they deserved some bonuses.

“Notwithstanding the tragic loss of life in the Gulf of Mexico, we achieved an exemplary statistical safety record as measured by our total recordable incident rate (“TRIR”) and total potential severity rate (“TPSR”),” Transocean wrote. “As measured by these standards, we recorded the best year in safety performance in our Company’s history, which is a reflection on our commitment to achieving an incident free environment, all the time, everywhere.

Or, as Grist put it:

“Yeah, some people died and some animals died and some livelihoods were ruined, but that was only April through July. On average we did pretty good. Here’s a suit made of money and a hat made of money.”

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Posted in: Energy, Environment, Regulation, Workplace Health & Safety1 comments

March30

Obama misses the point on energy security

By: Tyson Slocum

President Barack Obama should rethink his definition and strategy of energy security.

While Obama touted lofty goals about cutting our dependence on foreign oil in his address today, he missed the point.

Energy security is not just about reducing oil imports. It’s also about addressing how we get energy here at home. The crisis following last year’s BP oil spill showed us that domestic drilling is not a pathway for security. It shut down the Gulf economy for months, and the fishing industry may never rebound. Energy security starts and ends with curbing our oil addiction – period – not just cutting off oil imports.

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Posted in: Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Nuclear Power, Regulation0 comments

February21

Layer of oil and death

By: Rachel Lewis

Scientists have confirmed what many suspected– a layer of oil and death at the bottom of the ocean courtesy of BP. As reported by BBC News this morning,

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill “devastated” life on and near the seafloor, a marine scientist has said. Studies using a submersible found a layer, as much as 10cm thick in places, of dead animals and oil, said Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia . . . Organisms on the seafloor stimulate the activity of micro-organisms and oxygenate the sediments, two tasks at the bottom of the aquatic food chain that will inevitably have longer-term effects on species nearer the surface – including the ones we eat.

These findings come as no surprise to Public Citizen. We were engaged in the battle against offshore before the spill and we continue to use every means possible to push for better regulation and smarter energy policies. Currently, we are engaged in a campaign to demand Congress take action on the Jan 11 recommendations of the oil spill commission. Please join our efforts and urge you representatives to do their part to ensure that the work of the commission was not done in vain.

Posted in: Midmorning Refill0 comments

February1

The Midmorning Refill: Just so we’re clear, stranded piano is a crime, millions of barrels of oil spilled – not a crime

By: Dorry Samuels

Today’s Flickr photo:

Flickr photo by antonychammond

If you read one thing today…

For those keeping track of the score, on the grand scale of “Hmm, that sucks,” to “You’ve committed a crime,” we have some interesting new developments.

Say you dump a grand piano on a sandbar in southern Florida, you’ve committed a crime and could face felony charges and prison time. Why? Dumping is a felony.

But say it’s kind of like a larger-scale dump, like 4.9 million barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico… any jail time for that? Not so much. All you have to do is pay select Gulf victims a small percentage of the billions in profits that you earn annually.

As BuzzFlash put it:

Here’s a tip to the piano kid:  Be an oil tycoon, then you can do anything you want and not have to worry about felony charges.

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Midmorning Refill0 comments

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