The worst part about BP’s oil-spill cover-up: It worked
The worst part about BP’s oil-spill cover-up: It worked
By Mark Hertsgaard
Cross-posted from Newsweek
“It’s as safe as Dawn dishwashing liquid.” That’s what Jamie Griffin says the BP man told her about the smelly, rainbow-streaked gunk coating the floor of the “floating hotel” where Griffin was feeding hundreds of cleanup workers during the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently, the workers were tracking the gunk inside on their boots. Griffin, as chief cook and maid, was trying to clean it. But even boiling water didn’t work.
“The BP representative said, ‘Jamie, just mop it like you’d mop any other dirty floor,’” Griffin recalls in her Louisiana drawl.
It was the opening weeks of what everyone, echoing President Barack Obama, was calling “the worst environmental disaster in American history.” At 9:45 p.m. local time on April 20, 2010, a fiery explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig had killed 11 workers and injured 17. One mile underwater, the Macondo well had blown apart, unleashing a gusher of oil into the gulf. At risk were fishing areas that supplied one-third of the seafood consumed in the U.S., beaches from Texas to Florida that drew billions of dollars’ worth of tourism to local economies, and Obama’s chances of reelection. Republicans were blaming him for mishandling the disaster, his poll numbers were falling, even his 11-year-old daughter was demanding, “Daddy, did you plug the hole yet?”
Griffin did as she was told: “I tried Pine-Sol, bleach, I even tried Dawn on those floors.” As she scrubbed, the mix of cleanser and gunk occasionally splashed onto her arms and face. .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/business-technology/what-bp-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-the-2010-gulf-of-mexico-spill/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I boycotted Esso (Exxon) for years due to their cavalier treatment of the Exxon Valdez.
Then Shell for Nigeria ...
Then Chevron/Texaco ...
Then BP ...
At one point (many years pre-Deepwater Horizon) I realised that there is as little difference
in behaviour between oil corporations as there is between governments (regardless of the
labels on the players).
That was underlined when I found out that by using supermarket filling stations means
that you don't know which of the majors you are actually buying from anyway.
My response then became one of reducing consumption and that is the *only* true way
of "getting back" at the oil companies - all of them.
No reason not to use BP in preference for Exxon or Chevron in preference for Shell
as they will always win as long as you are using any of their products. Failure to realise
*that* is the real disconnect.
