Embattled CEO of BP has been fired and replaced.  FINALLY! 

Tony Hayward was relieved of his duties as BP’s Chief Executive Officer and will be replaced by Robert Dudley, the American currently overseeing the Gulf Coast disaster.  It probably had something to do with Hayward’s many PR blunders during his brief stint as point person for the Gulf plug and clean up efforts.

He became the lightning rod for anti-BP feeling in the United States and didn’t help matters with a series of gaffes, raising hackles by saying “I want my life back,” going sailing, and what was viewed as an evasive performance before U.S. congressmen in June.

SNIP

BP said the decision to replace Hayward, 53, with the company’s first ever non-British CEO was made by mutual agreement. In a mark of faith in its outgoing leader, BP said it planned to recommend him for a non-executive board position at its Russian joint venture and will pay him 1.045 million pounds ($1.6 million), a year’s salary, in lieu of notice.

So Hayward will receive a 1.6 million dollar payout and a million dollar a year pension for his efforts.  One wonders what the families that lost their loved ones will receive from BP??  If they are prevented from suing BP directly perhaps they should take a stab at the its former CEO who seems to have been unfairly rewarded considering that he promised to focus “like a laser” on safety as newly crowned CEO in 2007.

NOTE: Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

ProgressPolitics is proud to welcome guest blogger Barbara O’Brien from Mahablog.com  

When British Petroleum (BP) applied for a permit to build the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and begin drilling, it claimed to have the technology and know-how to handle any oil spill.

But in the face of an actual spill, BP is much less confident. “This scares everybody: the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far,” BP CEO Doug Suttles said. “Many of the things we’re ­trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 ft.”

They’ve never been tried at 5,000 feet. Drilling for oil this deeply under the ocean is a relatively new enterprise for our species. Oil has been drilled offshore in shallow water for more than a century. But deepwater drilling is much more expensive than shallow-water drilling. For a long time drilling in deep water wasn’t tried, because it would have cost more to extract a barrel of oil than a barrel of oil was worth on world markets. It took the spikes in oil prices in recent years to make deepwater drilling profitable. 

Politicians and oil executives assured us that offshore oil drilling was safe. Those tree huggers who worry about environmental disasters are nuts, they said. Yes, there have been oil rig disasters in the past, but (big wink) we know what we’re doing now. Trust us.

The laws of physics work differently nearly a mile underwater than they do on land, or shallow water, however. By now, it is obvious BP is still trying to invent a procedure that might stop the oil leak, maybe, if we’re lucky. No one appears to have been ready for the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Really, this “trust us” business is getting old. How many times have we been told to “trust” some new thing, and then when the dangers surface we find out the “trusted” ones hadn’t told us the whole truth? 

In the mid-20^th century we humans went into overdrive digging asbestos out of the earth to use in countless structures and products. There is asbestos in navy ships, in shipyards such as Bath Iron Works, asbestos in our homes and schools, asbestos in old car parts, and asbestos in landfills. And eventually, years after medical science had determined asbestos exposure causes terrible disease, industry executives and politicians reluctantly agreed to shut down asbestos production, or at least most of it. And now the cost of asbestos abatement and mesothelioma treatment is an ongoing problem for individuals, taxpayers, and businesses.

And do we want to talk about Vioxx? Tanning beds? And now there are questions being asked about Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in just about every plastic bottle you’ve ever touched. It may be dangerous, it may not. Opinions vary. Just note that the same political and business leaders who deny BPA could be dangerous are the same ones who like to yell “drill, baby, drill.”

Barbara O’ Brien

NOTE: Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

As most have been told at some point in their lives, when people tell you who they are…BELIEVE THEM.  Republicans have told the Americans how they will treat them if they gain control of Congress.  In fact, Rep. Joe Barton, the BP apologist, would be in charge of the congressional committee on energy in charge of investigating BP.  Thus, there would be no investigation of BP if Barton was leading such Committee given his opinion that BP is the wronged party in its own oil spill disaster.  Never mind the miners who lost their lives, the fisherman, and all the other gulf coast residents tragically affected by BP’s actions or lack thereof.

Lets also not forget the The Minerals Management Service (MMS).  MMS was captured and corrupted under the Bush/Cheney Administration thanks to its policies and its stacking of the government agency responsible for oversight of the oil industry’s response to oil spills with oil executives.  Yet the GOP criticizes Obama for not cleaning up its corruption fast enough.  You know, because the President had so much free time while bringing the economy back from the brink, reforming health care, etc..  Several Republican politicians are huge beneficiaries of oil industry money thus are beholding to the companies when it comes to the little guy versus Big Oil.  Such a philosophy could not be more apparent than from recent comments by several members of the Republican party.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX)

“I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown,” Barton said. “I’m only speaking for myself, I’m not speaking for anybody else. But I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize.”

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)

“BP’s reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics.  These actions are emblematic of a politicization of our economy that has been borne out of this Administration’s drive for greater power and control.”

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

“I think the people responsible in the oil spill–BP and the federal government–should take full responsibility for what’s happening there,” Boehner said at his weekly press conference on June 10.

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

The Mississippi Governor might not suffer politically for it, but he’s repeatedly insisted that the oil spill isn’t worth fretting over. It “isn’t anything like Exxon Valdez,” Barbour claims, comparing the crude itself to caramel mousse, toothpaste, and the fuel sheen surrounding speed boats.

Sarah “Simpleton” Palin (R-Who Knows)

“Extreme Greenies:see now why we push”drill,baby,drill”of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?”

Rand Paul (R-KY)

“This sort of, you know ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,’ I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business,”

Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)

“Don’t treat BP like an ATM.”  “BP extorted by the White House”

When the President took office we had an economy that was shrinking by over six  percent, it now is growing by three percent.  We went from losing on average 700,000 jobs  to gaining on average 140,000 jobs a a direct result of the Obama administration economic policies.  Who do you think will better look out for the interest of the people?

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

I must say that all of the criticism that came from the pundits Tuesday night after the President’s Oval Office address was typical when it comes to the pundits being out of touch with the people of the United States.  Pundits complained that there was not enough detail, he was too detached, he delivered “platitudes,”….give me a freakin break.  One person that really surprised me was Rachel Maddow who usually thinks for herself and does not hop on the lazy pundit bandwagon.  She did last night however and it was very disappointing.  This President is a President that gets sh%# done not sit around talking about what needs to be done.  And as usual the President delivered UNPRECEDENTED results.  Under federal law, BP can only be forced to pay $75 million maximum for economic damages resulting from spills such as these, yet….

• BP has agreed to set aside $20 billion to pay economic damage claims to people and businesses that have been affected by the oil spill
• The $20 billion is not a cap
• A pledge from BP to make good on the claims that it owes to the people in the Gulf and an agreement on the financial and legal framework to do it. 
•  The $20 billion fund will be put in escrow and controlled and administered by an impartial, independent third party not by BP or the government.  
• BP will continue to be liable for the environmental disaster
• Ken Feinberg, who administered the claims process for victims of 9/11, to run the independent claims process. 
• BP to establish a $100 million fund to compensate unemployed oil rig workers affected by the closure of the deep water rigs.
• BP will not be paying shareholder dividends on June 21st or for the next two quarters.

To be clear, the President can make life very difficult for BP in this country either by limiting its access to the nation’s oil or by way of the liability provisions in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.  One would say that the President let BP and its minions know who was in charge.

This is a side point, but did anyone notice that Tony “I want my life back” Napoleon Hayward’s name was not on the invitation to the BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg.  Instead the invitation was to the BP chairman and any “other executives.”  So Mr. Man was not mentioned at all.  Nice.  If you look at the footage however, the little dweezil could barely contain himself as he tagged along to the White House trying unsuccessfully to suppress his giddiness. 

The synopsis below is for all those who claimed that the President did not appear empathetic or angry enough.

During a private conversation with Chairman Svanberg I emphasized to him that for the families that I met with down in the Gulf, for the small business owners, for the fishermen, for the shrimpers, this is not just a matter of dollars and cents; that a lot of these folks don’t have a cushion.  They were coming off Rita and Katrina; coming off the worst economy that this country has seen since the Great Depression, and this season was going to be the season where they were going to be bouncing back.  Not only that, but this happened, from their perspective, at the worst possible time, because they’re making their entire income for the year in the three or four months during which folks can take their boats out, people are coming down for tourism. 

It is my belief that this is the most empathetic President that we have had in decades.  Though he is not shouting or wearing his emotions on his sleeve I have no doubt that this President cares more for the average American than any President who has held the office.  IMO

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

BP is alleged to be deploying midnight raiders to remove carcases and evidence of its disaster before environmentalist and volunteers can photograph or collect them.  Apparently, when a carcass is detected during the night people descend upon the affected area with flashlights and the carcass is gone within fifteen minutes.  This is absolutely crazy.  The company is also being reported to be removing the heads of carcases so that the cause of death cannot be determined.  It is clear that BP is engaging in a systematic full frontal cover up of its disaster.  As pointed out by Keith Olbermann last night the Gulf Coast region is now a crime scene and the primary suspect is in charge of collecting the evidence. The oil and carcases recovered from the beaches and the ocean is evidence that will be used to assess damages as well as prosecute the company and/or individuals involved therefore it behooves such suspect company to tamper with the evidence.  It is the government’s job to prevent it.

BP is accused of:

- Restricting access to a number of sites affected by the spill

- Refusing to let the media talk to workers who are employed to clean up the spill

- Taking animal carcasses away at night before the media or environmental organization can photograph and record the deaths

- Deleting emails which refer to animal carcasses

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com

British Petroleum  has not bothered to even send a letter of condolence or make a phone call to at least one of the families of one of the eleven men who lost his life when its oil rig exploded in the Gulf Coast.  Mr. Christopher Jones testified yesterday in a Senate Committee hearing that BP has not contacted any member of his family to express their sympathy for the loss of his brother Gordon Jones in the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf.  This demonstrates that this Hayward guy could care less about families affected by this disaster and his first priority will be to his shareholders.  As a matter of fact, with a smirk on his face  Mr. Hayward listed his priorities concerning the oil spill:   

“we’re going to take care of our Gulf Coast stakeholders, we have to take care of our investors, we have have to take care of our employees….our retirees….and we’re going to take care of all of our stakeholders.”

If you notice the interviewer asked Hayward if he has spoken with the President and Hayward tried to give the impression that it was his choice not to speak with the President.  Yea right!  The President of the United States has no reason to meet with with some self-aggrandizing CEO who lives in an alternate universe where he pretends to be king.  My hope is that the President does not speak with Hayward because the last thing this Napoleonic victim needs is to be elevated to the level of a presidential phone call.  It is clear that he believes that he operates at the same level as the President as it is and there is no need for President Obama to encourage his delusions of grandeur.

BP makes $62 million dollars a day.  However, it was recently reported that the company encouraged a culture neglect and law breaking in the name of the almighty dollar.  Investgatory  documents obtained by the Washington Post and ProPublica  “portray a company that systemically ignored its own safety policies’ as well as first-hand accounts from Deepwater Horizon explosion survivors that company decision makers on the oil rig may have prioritized revenue over safety.”

In the CNN interviews, the workers described a corporate culture of cutting staff and ignoring warning signs ahead of the blast. They said BP routinely cut corners and pushed ahead despite concerns about safety.

The rig survivors also said it was always understood that you could get fired if you raised safety concerns that might delay drilling. Some co-workers had been fired for speaking out, they said.

BP really believes that it is untouchable.  The company has run up 760 “egregious, willful” safety violations according to OSHA.

The violations are determined when an employer demonstrated either an “intentional disregard for the requirements of the [law], or showed plain indifference to employee safety and health.”

OSHA statistics show BP ran up 760 “egregious, willful” safety violations, while Sunoco and Conoco-Phillips each had eight, Citgo had two and Exxon had one comparable citation.

BP’s safety violations far outstrip its fellow oil companies. According to the Center for Public Integrity, in the last three years, BP refineries in Ohio and Texas have accounted for 97 percent of the “egregious, willful” violations handed out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

From the Washington Post:

A series of internal investigations over the past decade warned senior BP managers that the company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if it did not change its ways.

The confidential inquiries, which have not previously been made public, focused on a rash of problems at BP’s Alaska oil-drilling unit that undermined the company’s publicly proclaimed commitment to safe operations. They described instances in which management flouted safety by neglecting aging equipment, pressured or harassed employees not to report problems, and cut short or delayed inspections in order to reduce production costs. Executives were not held accountable for the failures, and some were promoted despite them.

Similar themes about BP operations elsewhere were sounded in interviews with former employees, in lawsuits and little-noticed state inquiries, and in e-mails obtained by ProPublica. Taken together, these documents portray a company that systemically ignored its own safety policies across its North American operations — from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico to California and Texas.

My question is what is going on in Washington, DC that allows a company to flout the laws of the United States in such a brazen fashion?  How is this company still being allowed to operate in the United States?  Further, last week BP reported that it released 500,000 pounds of cancer causing Benzene emissions into the air in Texas City, Texas during April and May of this year.  This is at least ten times the legal limit permitted by state regulatory commission.  Such emissions occurred for 40 straight days!!!  This company clearly believes that it does not have to be accountable because of its balance sheet and that is unacceptable.

Attorney barred in the District of Columbia and California currently looking for opportunities in the private and government sectors.  Specializes in ediscovery/litigation efficiency project management but can do straight litigation or litigation management.  Feel free to contact me with opportunities at progress@progresspolitics.com