28th Apr 2006
The Worst Corporations
Apparently I missed the award ceremonies, but was alerted by Ann’s blog. Here are the ten worst corporations of last year. God bless ‘em. It’s hard to be so bad.
From The Ten Worst Corporations of 2005 a small taste of the badness of dear, dear British Petroleum (BP):
BP
In November 2005, BP said that it expects to spend as much as $8 billion in alternative-energy projects, including solar, wind, hydrogen, and carbon-abatement technology, over 10 years.
It is running two-page ads in major U.S. newspapers touting itself as a leader in alternative energy.
This is part of a high-energy campaign to cover up BP’s dirty tricks that flow from its oil business.
To do so, it has to cover up its shoddy operations on the North Slope of Alaska, where it is seeking to bust open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, and its reckless operations at its refineries around the globe.
In March, 15 workers were incinerated, and more than 170 injured, following an explosion at BP’s sprawling refinery in Texas City, Texas.
It was the third fatal accident at the Texas City BP facility in the last four years.
In September 2004, two workers were burned to death and another was seriously injured.
In 2001, a maintenance worker at the facility died after falling into a tank that had been shut down. Nationwide, BP’s facilities have had more than 3,565 accidents since 1990, ranking first in the nation, according to a 2004 report by the Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG).
BP has admitted it was at fault in the Texas City explosion. “We regret that our mistakes have caused so much suffering,” said Ross Pillari, president of BP Products North America, after the company had completed an interim investigation in May.
“We apologize to those who were harmed and to the Texas City community,” said Pillari. “ We cannot change the past or repair all the damage this incident has done. We can assure that those who were injured and the families of those who died receive financial support and compensation. Our goal is to provide fair compensation without the need for lawsuits or lengthy court proceedings.”
There is a case to be made that BP engaged in criminal reckless homicide, or involuntary manslaughter. To prove this, the District Attorney in Galveston County, where the deaths occurred, would have to find that BP and its executives consciously disregarded “a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a death will occur.”
We believe that the families of the dead deserve a full-blown reckless homicide investigation by the District Attorney in Galveston County.
When asked about this, Mohamed Ibrahim, the first assistant district attorney in Galveston County, told us that his office had opened no such criminal investigation into the BP matter. “We have no reason to believe at this point that it was anything but an unfortunate industrial accident,” Ibrahim said.
“If OSHA [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] came to us and said it was a result of criminal recklessness, we would look at an investigation,” he added.
In September, OSHA fined the company $21 million for violating federal OSHA law. There was no criminal referral. Lesser workplace crimes this year have resulted in criminal convictions against smaller companies. BP gets off because it is a large multinational?
On the North Slope of Alaska, BP continues to muscle the political machinery to get its way.
Its reckless operations there — including unreported oil spills — will someday end up in an environmental disaster, long predicted by oil industry critic Charles Hamel.
BP is eager to portray itself as the good guy oil company, but it is not eager to answer tough questions.
In October, U.S. News and World Report held a press conference to announce “America’s Best Leaders 2005.”
The press event was paid for by BP.
BP’s guy at the door wouldn’t let us in.
No questions about corporate crime allowed.
