The BP report on what caused the biggest peacetime oil spill in history is out – and you will be shocked!
You’ll be shocked to discover that the company does not blame itself. Following official talking points, the company blames “a sequence of failures involving a number of different parties.” There are, of course, strong hints that BP is ready to blame the workers themselves for “ignoring” warning signs.
It would be a mistake to dismiss the report as complete corporate propaganda, if only because it offers insight into the upcoming BP attack campaign. Now that we’ve moved into the post-gusher phase, the company is shifting to the offensive. Another interesting tactic is to have outgoing Tony “I want my life back” Hayward speak about the report. He told the Washington Post that: “It is evident that a series of complex events, rather than a single mistake or failure, led to the tragedy…. Multiple parties, including BP, Halliburton and Transocean, were involved.”
But Mr. Hayward (his last day as BP CEO is said to be Oct. 1) did insist the runaway well’s much-criticized design was not among the causes. Imagine that, the company that chose the cheaper design to boost profits lets itself off the hook. Again, what a shock.
Meanwhile the BP “company men” for the rig – Donald Vidrine and Robert Kaluza – continue to refuse to testify as part of actual investigations into what happened. We assume they participated in this report on the BP version of what happened…but we doubt they will be among the “workers” BP implicates as part of the problem.
The Washington Post has a good take, complete with comments from Mr. “Who Dat?” Hayward: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/08/AR2010090801554.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
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