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The Gross
Negligence of BP
by Greg Palast
Excerpt:
I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a
fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the
party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum.
That's important to know, because the way BP
caused devastation in Alaska is exactly the way BP is now sliming the entire
Gulf Coast.
Tankers run aground, wells blow out, pipes burst.
It shouldn't happen but it does. And when it does, the name of the game
is containment. Both in Alaska, when the Exxon
Valdez grounded, and in the Gulf over a week ago, when the Deepwater Horizon
platform blew, it was British Petroleum that
was charged with carrying out the Oil Spill Response Plans ("OSRP") which
the
company itself drafted and filed with the government.
What's so insane, when I look over that sickening
slick moving toward the Delta, is that containing spilled oil is really
quite simple and easy. And from my investigation,
BP has figured out a very low cost way to prepare for this task:
BP lies. BP prevaricates, BP fabricates and BP
obfuscates.
That's because responding to a spill may be easy
and simple, but not at all cheap.
And BP is cheap. Deadly cheap.
This shows one huge difference between Democrats
and Rethugs.
Rethugs say government should "get out of the
way" and oil spills happen when it does.
Palast makje the argument that this could;'ve
been conatined early, but only if the people and resources
were nearby - like having a firehouse in your
neighborhood - but that takes money and BP has an "obligation"
to their sharholders to make every damn dollar
possible, even if they have to gamble with the Gulf..
Democrats think there are environmental consequenes
to pay when the dollar is BIG oil's only concern.
Democrats think cruise ships should have enough
lifeboats for each passenger.
Republicans call that "interference" and they
blame Democrats for "meddling."
The idiot voter can't figure out who to trust,
and since the Democrats refuse to list the facts,
too often the idiot voter falls for that "less
government" crap, at least until the oil hits the fan.
Democrats are right about 90% of the time - but they refuse to make their case.
Why should they listen to Obama, Kerry or Gore drone on and on with
facts
when FOX News and the vulgar Pigboy are so much more entertaining?