The Deepwater Horizon disaster resulted from a “conscious disregard of known risks,” a federal judge found.
A federal judge has ruled that recklessness and negligence in pursuit of profit led to the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 people and dumped more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico—the worst oil spill in US history.
US District Court Judge Carl Barbier found primary leaseholder BP “grossly negligent,” but also cited negligence by Halliburton, which served as cement contractor, and rig owner Transocean.
One would hope that with Barack Obama talking about expanding offshore drilling, media would take seriously the judge’s conclusion that the Deepwater disaster was not a matter of accidental missteps by a few “bad apples,” but implicates business as usual for an entire industry, as well as those agencies meant to regulate it.
Newspaper reports led with the fact that a finding of gross negligence by BP “could quadruple the billions of dollars in penalties the oil giant faces” (Times-Picayune, 9/5/14)—with emphasis on how this further beleaguers a company that, in the words of one analyst (Washington Post, 9/5/14), “has already paid dearly for the accident.”
“The significance of today’s ruling is that when you put it together with how much was spilled, it considerably increases the size of a possible fine,” one source (LA Times, 9/5/14) explained.
But the costs to BP—which the New York Times (9/6/14) noted will likely be much lower than the $18 billion now being discussed, and in any event won’t be paid for years—are not the most salient point. By stating that—far from a “glitch” in a few frenzied moments—the spill was caused by a series of decisions, made over a period of time, by three of the largest operators in the world, the ruling “demonstrates the lack of safety of all existing offshore oil operations and severely challenges the notion that those activities should be allowed to expand,” argues Antonia Juhasz (Institute for Public Accuracy, 9/5/14), author of Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill.
Based on years of evidence review, Barbier’s 153-page ruling concluded that BP acted with “conscious disregard of known risks” and made decisions “motivated by profit,” including ignoring leaks in the well’s casing, forgoing critical tests that would have revealed problems (and offering suspiciously optimistic interpretations of the tests they did run), and rushing to drill the last 100 feet of the well using unsafe practices.
A BP engineer was convicted for “deleting incriminating emails” about the spill (Times-Picayune, 9/21/14); a phone call between a BP executive and an engineer in Houston, in which they “discussed the results of a pressure test that should have prompted quick action” (New York Times, 9/5/14), was omitted from the company’s own investigative report.
Certainly many people guilty of such crimes would appreciate coverage describing them as “legal setbacks” (New York Times, 9/6/14).
Some media suggest that BP is the victim of false claims. “BP Made a Mess in the Gulf, but Still Shouldn’t Get Fleeced,” argued a Times-Picayune piece (9/10/14), referring to “an unseemly frenzy over an uncapped gusher of cash.” (Reporter Jim Varney has also called climate change “a faux environmental crisis”—Times-Picayune, 9/24/14.)
In 2010, 60 Minutes (5/16/10) interviewed Deepwater crew member Mike Williams, who recounted how workers were told how much money was being lost by delays, and pushed to “pick up the pace,” a supervisor dismissing damage to a vital piece of safety equipment as “no big deal,” and “chest-bumping” battles between Transocean and BP officials about who was in charge.
Sadly, the program’s latest report (9/7/14) portrayed BP as “the victim of Gulf Coast swindlers” who have the company “over a barrel.”
Oil-soaked birds are followed by years of less visible ecological damage.
Talk of litigious excess implies that any real harm has already been addressed. But the impacts of environmental disasters—on wildlife, ecosystems and local economies—take years to assess. Beyond initial accounts of thousands of dead fish, birds and mammals, for example, University of South Florida scientists in 2013 discovered a massive die-off of foraminifera, tiny organisms that form the base of the aquatic food chain. As Tampa Bay Times’ Craig Pittman (4/4/13) reported:
Although initially some pundits said the spill wasn’t as bad as everyone feared, further scientific research has found that corals in the Gulf died. Anglers hauled in fish with tattered fins and strange lesions. And dolphins continue dying.
Most media omitted discussion of the ongoing damage caused by the Deepwater disaster from stories about who was to blame. BP, meanwhile, has expanded drilling operations in the Gulf (Washington Post, 9/5/14).
