Exxon is still fumbling to deal with a 42,000-gallon oil pipeline spill on the Yellowstone River west of Billings, Montana. Its initial response was pathetic–it was slow to turn off the gushing pipeline, had no…
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Archive | Tag: bp oil spill
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BP Spill Claims: Secrecy Raises New Suspicion
Every time BP or its hired claims administrator Kenneth Feinberg drip out a little information about Feinberg’s pay deal and BP’s control of the process, it raises even deeper suspicions. I guess Feinberg’s independence from BP all depends on your definition of “independent.”
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What BP’s Secrecy on Payout Deals Sacrifices
We’ve reported about what’s wrong in the secrecy around BP’s payments to Kenneth Feinberg and his law firm, which is doling out compensation for BP’s devastating oil spill in the Gulf. Monday, though, the Center for Justice and Democracy got deep into the guts of the matter.
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BP’s Cost Chiselers Back in Action
Late last week, as the presidential oil spill commission’s co-chair and staff blamed BP’s cost-cutting and “failure of management” for the devastating spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP managers claimed that the government estimate…
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Feinberg Can’t Do Public Job, Take Secret Pay
The deadline for submitting claims to the $20 billion BP oil spill compensation fund is midnight Tuesday. The wrangling over payouts will go on, perhaps for years. Yet the administrator of the fund, Kenneth Feinberg,…
Press Release
Group Calls on Obama To Remove Oil Panel’s Chief Lawyer for Conflict of Interest After Commission Refuses
Consumer Watchdog NEWS RELEASE Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010 Contact: Judy Dugan, 213-280-0175; or Jamie Court, 310-392-0075 Washington, D.C. — Consumer Watchdog today called on President Obama to remove the general counsel to the national Oil…
News Clipping
Spill Commission Defends Its Top Lawyer
The panel named by President Obama to investigate the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout on Tuesday rejected a call by a consumer activist group for the resignation of its chief counsel, Fred H. Bartlit Jr. The group, Consumer Watchdog, said that the panel should dismiss Mr. Bartlit because his law firm, Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, once represented Halliburton, one of the companies involved in drilling the BP well.
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Feinberg to Chamber: “It won’t work”
I had lunch in the Chamber of Commerce’s AIG-sponsored “Hall of Flags” today, where BP compensation fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg told the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform that the legal system is working just fine.
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BP’s Long, Ugly History of Profit Over Safety
Anyone who thinks BP’s big new promise to put safety before profit should read or watch the ProPublica/Frontline investigation of BP’s wretched safety history. (The Frontline documentary airs Tuesday). It’s the story of a corporation that for years cut costs to fuel growth above all, viewed safety as a waste of money and baldly lied to regulators.
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Obama: Yank Ethically Deaf BP Fund Chief From Chamber Speech
The charitable interpretation of Kenneth Feinberg’s keynote speech Wednesday for the Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform is that the BP compensations fund administrator is deaf to the implications. When Feinberg opens his mouth, he’ll be validating a powerful and viciously anti-consumer organization whose parent, the Chamber, is deeply involved in pro-corporate politics.
Press Release
Obama Should Stop BP Fund Administrator Feinberg From Giving Chamber Of Commerce Keynote Or Fire Him, Watchdog Says
Washington, DC — Consumer Watchdog asked President Obama to force BP Fund Administrator Kenneth Feinberg to withdraw from a keynote address Wednesday at a Chamber of Commerce group dedicated to eviscerating spill victims’ legal rights, and to fire Feinberg if he refuses.
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BP Safety Chief: Big Talk, but What Else?
BP executives can’t seriously believe that this time they’ll get safety right. The company’s penny-pinching “safety be damned” culture is too entrenched to reverse–especially if you put the old vice-president of excuses in charge of the new plan.
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BP’s tax-subsidized cleanup
You think you’re done being mad at BP? You’re over the fact that it’s still getting piles of U.S. taxpayer subsidies, including subsidies on what it promised to pay for the cleanup? Jim Hightower, the Texas populist and scourge of misbehaving corporations, tells us that BP isn’t just hiring out-of-work Florida Pandhandle folks–it’s using semicamouflaged prison labor, and the scary fellas come with a subsidy of $2,500 per head.