TUCSON, Ariz. Sept. 8, 2010 - Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, issued the following statement today in response to BP’s just released report on the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill:
“BP’s internal investigation doesn’t pass the smell test. Rather than accept the blame and financial consequences for its disaster, BP is continuing to point fingers at everyone it can. This report is more concerned with calming BP’s shareholders than taking responsibility for its actions.”
“BP is well aware that hundreds of lawsuits and tens of billions of dollars in fines rest on determining who is to blame and whether they were criminally negligent. This report bends over backwards to spread the blame around, conceal BP’s financial interest in cutting corners, and avoid any hint of criminal liability.”
“With operational costs running to a million dollars a day, BP had an overriding interest in cutting corners and completing the well as cheaply as possible. Its own engineers warned that is well design was dangerous and the company was so concerned about loss of hydraulic fluid in its problematic blowout preventer that it did not fully pressure test it in the days before the explosion.”
“This accident can not be reduced to technical and human errors, it was caused by a deep flaw in America’s oil drilling system which allowed BP to lease and drill for oil with no environmental review, no safety measures to protected imperiled wildlife, no meaningful spill cleanup plan, no backup blowout preventers, and a complete absence of government regulators from key decision moments such as cementing and pressure testing the well.”
“We look forward to an objective investigation by the Department’s of Interior and Justice to find what really happened and who is to blame.”
Website: www.biologicaldiversity.org
By submitting a comment you consent to our rules. Please use your real first and last name, not a nickname or alias. Thank you.
