Oil
firm agrees to abide by EPA monitoring arrangements for five years,
allowing it to bid for drilling contracts in Gulf of Mexico
- theguardian.com, Friday 14 March 2014 07.51 EDT
BP
is still awaiting a US court ruling about whether it was grossly
negligent over the Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010. Photograph:
AFP/Getty Images
The British-based group had started legal proceedings against the US environmental protection agency (EPA) which had banned BP from new contracts on the grounds that it had failed to correct problems properly since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
BP said it had now dropped its law suit after resolving outstanding problems with the EPA but the firm will have to abide by monitoring arrangements with the agency for the next five years.
"After a lengthy negotiation, BP is pleased to have reached this resolution, which we believe to be fair and reasonable," said John Mingé, head of BP America. "Today's agreement will allow America's largest energy investor to compete again for federal contracts and leases."
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Huffpost Business
Government Declares BP a 'Responsible' Contractor: Workers and Taxpayers Beware
Posted:
Updated:
To get right to the point, the federal government's decision that BP has somehow paid its debt and should once again be eligible for federal contracts is a disgrace. Not only does it let BP off the hook, it sends an unmistakable signal to the rest of the energy industry: That no matter how much harm you do, no matter how horrid your safety record, the feds will cut you some slack.
Back in 2012, the agency's intrepid staff had finally gotten permission to pull the trigger on the company, de-barring it from holding any new U.S. contracts on the grounds that it was not running its business in a "responsible" way. Undoubtedly under pressure by the Cameron government and the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency, BP's most loyal customer, the EPA settled its debarment suit for a sweet little consent decree that will try to improve the company's sense of ethics by having "independent" auditors come visit once a year.
To review the grim record: BP, now the third-largest energy company in the world, is the first among the roster of companies that have caused the most memorable industrial fiascos in the post-modern age.
- Its best-known disaster, the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig moored in the Gulf of Mexico that BP had hired to develop its lease of the Macondo well, killed 11 and deposited 205 million gallons of crude oil along the southern coast of the United States -- the worst environmental disaster in American history.
- In a troubling precursor, another explosion killed 15 and injured 180 at the company's Texas City refinery in July 2005. This incident happened even after the plant manager there had gone on bended knee to John Manzoni, BP's second in command worldwide, to plead for money to address severe maintenance problems that jeopardized safety at that plant after a consultant surveying refinery workers reported that many thought they ran a real risk of being killed at work. Those fears were warranted, it turned out.
- Also in 2005, 200,000 gallons of oil spilled from a BP pipeline on Alaska's North Slope.
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