BP’s Coming Back and Going Deeper in the Gulf of Mexico — even before It’s Paid Trivial Fines for Its 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster

© 2011 Peter Free

 

26 October 2011

 

 

Plutocracy in magnificent action, again — get this

 

We’re such a super country.  We run around in circles shouting passionately (every once in while) about corporate duplicity and egregious “slave”-holding— and then, a few days later, we forget what we upset about and hand over our wallets (again) to the plutocrats who run the country.

 

After the biggest oil spill ever — already proven to have been caused by corporate carelessness and government regulatory complicity — BP’s going back to the Gulf of Mexico with the United States Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s blessing.

 

Note

 

The Bureau replaced the safety and enforcement components of the Minerals Management Service that had approved the Deepwater Horizon well.

 

Isn’t it convenient how “we” simply re-create an institution under another name and its culpability immediately disappears?

 

BP, arguably the most egregiously incompetent of the world’s major oil companies, is going to drill an even deeper well — having already demonstrated that it couldn’t cope with a blowout in the shallower Macondo well that created the Deepwater Horizon spill:

 

The permit awarded by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is for an exploratory well in the Keathley Canyon map area, located about 246 miles south of Lafayette, La.

 

The well would be in waters 6,034 feet deep, which is deeper than the company’s doomed 5,000-foot Macondo well that ruptured and sparked a fire on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and led to the biggest spill in U.S. maritime history.

 

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) blasted the decision to issue the permit before BP paid fines stemming from last year’s spill.

 

“The fact that BP is getting a permit to drill without yet paying a single cent in fines is a disappointment, and does not serve as an effective lesson of deterrence for oil and gas companies.”

 

© 2011 Darren Goode, BP gets new Gulf drilling permit, Politico (26 October 2011)

 

 

Want a glimpse of the anti-regulatory mentality behind this gem of a government decision?

 

Catch this sequence of recent events:

 

On 12 October, BSEE [Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement] issued an initial round of 15 violation notices to BP and contractors Transocean and Halliburton in the wake of Macondo, which sparked the largest offshore oil spill in US history.

 

BSEE director Michael Bromwich on 13 October said the US will allow BP to bid for acreage in the 14 December lease sale for the western Gulf despite efforts on Capitol Hill to try to penalize the company for Macondo.

 

“The question is, do you administer the administrative death penalty based on one incident?” Bromwich said.

 

“We've concluded, I've concluded, that that is not appropriate for these circumstances.”

 

© 2011 US approves BP exploration plan for deepwater Gulf, ArgusMedia (21 October 2011)

 

 

The moral? — Integrity in government matters

 

With plutocratic-toadies regularly voted into office (including President Obama), who among the rabble that comprises the rest of us needs enemies?