BP Wants Experts to Keep Quiet; House Says No Way
Friday 30 July 2010
by: Deb Weinstein, t r u t h o u t | Report
Rep. Bruce Braley questions BP CEO Tony Hayward while Chairmen Henry Waxman and Ed Markey listen. (Photo: Committee on Energy & Commerce / Flickr)
BP's headache continues to get worse. In a July 29 letter to BP America's President Lamar McKay, Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-California) and Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts) have demanded BP's executive appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce by August 6. Unlike then-CEO Tony Hayward's testimony which focused on the April 20 explosion, this time Waxman and Markey are looking into a less-visible component of the BP disaster: reports that BP attempted to hire experts and bar them from discussing their findings with anyone outside of the company for three years or until BP established its Gulf restoration plan. In the case of the University of South Alabama, the BBC reports, the multi-billion dollar company sought to hire not just one expert, but the entire marine sciences division.
"The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is not a private matter," Waxman and Markey wrote," adding "any effort to muzzle scientists or shield their findings under doctrines of legal privileges could seriously impede the recovery."
Waxman and Markey cite reports from the Mobile Register, BBC and The Associated Press as among the reports that tipped them off to the oil company's efforts. However, scientists aren't the only ones being consulted, and Waxman and Markey have told BP's McKay they want a full accounting of "third-party consultants, academics and scientists" retained "in connection with assessing the environment and health impacts" of the oil spill and Gulf restoration since April 20.
According to BP's second quarter report, the company is the subject of 300 civil lawsuits, as well as investigations by the Department of Justice, US Presidential Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Chemical Safety Hazard Investigation Board, Congress and a joint investigation by the US Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement over the Deepwater Horizon Incident. A report by The New York Times says BP has set aside $32.2 billion, for the cleanup, but acknowledges that lawsuits could up the amount owed.
The well, which was capped July 15 and poured between 35,000 to 60,000 of barrels of oil a day into the Gulf for 87 days, may finally be sealed. According to Bloomberg.com, the company may attempt the "static kill" this week.
BP could not be reached for comment.
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Comments
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BP doesn't have enough money
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 20:02 β radline9 (not verified)BP doesn't have enough money to cover a disaster like this. If they declare bankruptcy, we will be left holding the bag. So in the end, we will get what we can from BP and they will be allowed to stay solvent.
Radline9 may be right about
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 22:46 β Straight-Ahead (not verified)Radline9 may be right about BP declaring bankruptcy, trying to evade liability for the Gulf disaster. That is why we need a criminal prosecution of BP and BP execs at all levels. If Tony Hayward were required to defend in court his own role in creating the culture environmental irresponsibility, a lot of corporate execs would sit up and take notice and re-examine the policies of their own corporate persons. If he were to be convicted and forced to disgorge some of his astronomical bonuses from the last eight or ten years and sent to prison for even. there would be a sea change in corporate behavior. Among other things that the US government could do is file criminal charges against BP and reclaim all the leases and contracts that BP has from/with the govt.
But there is not even a criminal investigation of BP. Why? Because having got himself elected by scamming progressives, Obama has turned his coat inside out and is off to party with the corporate elite, thinking they'll get him re-elected in 2012. Not with my efforts or even my vote .
The wellhead may be capped,
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 23:49 β Kevin Schmidt (not verified)The wellhead may be capped, but the OIL IS STILL GUSHING! The pipeline casing is broken beneath the surface and oil is coming up between the drill hole and the casing. That is why they found leaks bubbling up through the gulf floor many miles away from the drill hole.
The only way to stop the oil is to drill a relief hole that penetrates the leaking hole beneath where the casing is broken, and then fill it up with cement.
Meanwhile, the intense pressure from the gusher is eroding the rock and causing bigger leaks.
Have we opened the Gates of Hell and don't know how to close them?
Fossil fuel companies will
Sun, 08/01/2010 - 13:33 β captain pneumo (not verified)Fossil fuel companies will always try to spin their so-called environmental efforts, and they have pockets deep enough to keep us distracted as long as they want. Bob Dylan was right: "Money doesn't talk, it screams."
I thought Dylan's line was
Sun, 08/01/2010 - 15:47 β donquijoterocket (not verified)I thought Dylan's line was money doesn't talk, it swears, obscenity who really cares.then the refrain it's alright Ma I'm only bleeding.
Especially apropos IMO because the song also contains the line even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked. Given that the kleptocracy owns the guvmint lock, stock, barrel and Supreme Court I'm not sure where any remedy lies.Bad as Obama's been I can't help but think the alternative would be even worse.
Demanded? Who do these
Sun, 08/01/2010 - 18:58 β Gordon UK (not verified)Demanded? Who do these people " dressed in a little brief authority" think they are? When Warren Andersen, CEO of Union Carbide, was indicted in India following the catastrophic leak of gas which killed 20,000 people, he fled and the US courts refused his extradition claiming lack of evidence. Lack of evidence? 20,000 people died, for God's sake!!