Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumBP covered up blow out 2 years prior to Deep Water Horizon Spill
http://www.nationofchange.org/bp-covered-blow-out-two-years-prior-deadly-deepwater-horizon-spill-1334928961Two years before the Deepwater Horizon blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP off-shore rig suffered a nearly identical blow-out, but BP concealed the first one from the U.S. regulators and Congress.
This week, EcoWatch.org located an eyewitness with devastating new information about the Caspian Sea oil-rig blow-out which BP had concealed from government and the industry.
The witness, whose story is backed up by rig workers who were evacuated from BPs Caspian platform, said that had BP revealed the full story as required by industry practice, the eleven Gulf of Mexico workers could have had a chance of survival. But BPs insistence on using methods proven faulty sealed their fate.
One cause of the blow-outs was the same in both cases: the use of a money-saving techniqueplugging holes with quick-dry cement.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Striking resemblances between BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster and a little-reported giant gas leak in Azerbaijan experienced by the UK firm 18 months beforehand have emerged from leaked US embassy cables.
The cables reveal that some of BP's partners in the gas field were upset that the company was so secretive about the incident that it even allegedly withheld information from them. They also say that BP was lucky that it was able to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which resulted in two fields being shut and output being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day with production disrupted for months.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/15/wikileaks-bp-azerbaijan-gulf-spill?intcmp=239
The US was aware of the cement issue in a cable dated January 2009.
See shaded yellow area here : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/187280
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)And now that there's a bill around to exculpate the oil companies COMPLETELY.. How bad will it get?
alfredo
(60,071 posts)Stop HR 4345!
H.R. 4345: Domestic Fuels Protection Act of 2012
112th Congress, 20112012
To provide liability protection for claims based on the design, manufacture, sale, offer for sale, introduction into commerce, or use of certain fuels and fuel additives, and for other purposes.
Sponsor:
Rep. John Shimkus [R-IL19]
AdHocSolver
(2,561 posts)Their disregard of safety precautions in order to maximize profit is basic modus operandi of corporations.
H.R. 4345 provides a "get out of jail free" pass, not to say that corporations that caused disasters ever fully cleaned up after themselves.
If this bill somehow gets through the Congress, then it must be vetoed by the President.
This bill seems to be designed to have a similar use for corporations that the "Stand Your Ground" laws have for "trigger-happy" gun owners.
Existing laws allow people to defend themselves and their property if they can demonstrate to the authorities that they were actually threatened. The "Stand Your Ground" laws remove the necessity of having to prove an actual threat to a shooter by allowing the shooter to hide behind a claim that he "felt threatened".
HR4345, as described in the original post, evidently covers every aspect of the oil, coal, and natural gas industries. If the provisions in the bill follow the OP's description, then destruction of ground water by "fracking" would come under the provisions of this bill.
This bill is a real nightmare.
alfredo
(60,071 posts)global1
(25,247 posts)Was that resolved? I haven't heard much about that lately -- what's going on?