BP's extremely long list of violations (in only a few short years)

The London-based oil company, BP or Beyond Petroleum, has got to be one of the most reckless oil companies operating within the US boarders. In the last few years alone, BP has paid over $730 millions dollars in fines and settlements, plead guilty to two crimes and has been found liable for everything from willful neglect of worker safety rules to manipulating energy markets.

Given BP's extremely poor record of towing the line and the magnitude of this disaster, I think that BP should be banned from doing any and all business here in America. We should make them pay for the clean-up but we should not allow them to manage the operation as they would only screw that up as they do everything else. In fact, they are already screwing up the cleaning and containment operations.

Below, is the very long list of BP violations and screw-ups.




[color=FFFF00]WORKER SAFETY – $215 million in penalties/settlements:

• BP paid the two largest fines in OSHA history – $87.43 million and $21.36 million – for willful negligence that led to the deaths of 15 workers and injured 170 others in a March 2005 refinery explosion in Texas.

• In September 2005, OSHA cited BP for 296 “Egregious Willful Violations” and other violations associated with the explosion, fining BP $21.36 million and entering into a settlement agreement under which BP agreed to corrective actions to eliminate hazards similar to those that caused the explosion. In October 2009, OSHA determined that BP was in non-compliance with the settlement agreement, finding 270 “notifications of failure to abate” and 439 new willful violations, resulting in the $87.43 million fine. The U.S. Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board concluded in 2007 that “The Texas City disaster was caused by organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation. Warning signs of a possible disaster were present for several years, but company officials did not intervene effectively to prevent it.” This followed an August 2004 OSHA fine against BP for $63,000 for violations at the same facility. In December 2009, a Texas jury returned a $100 million dollar award against BP on behalf of workers injured in 2007 at the texas city refinery while making repairs after the 2005 blast.

• Just last month, BP paid a $3 million dollar fine to OSHA for 42 willful safety violations at one of its refineries in Ohio. This follows a $2.4 million dollar fine BP paid for safety & health violations at this refinery in April 2006.

• In september 2001, OSHA fined BP $141,000 dollars after an explosion killed 3 workers at BPs Clanton Road facility.

• In October 2006, the Minerals Management Service fined BP $25,000 dollars because “operations were not performed in a safe and workmanlike manner. While making an assessment of the unsafe conditions on the platform that needed repairing, the construction crew did not barricade a 3’4″ x 3’4″ opening in the stairway landing. Later, one of the crew members was injured when he fell through the open hole approximately 20′ and into the Gulf of Mexico".

• In July 2004, BP paid a $190,000 dollar penalty to MMS for safety violations that resulted in a fire.

• In February 2004, MMS fined BP $25,000 dollars because “The Rig’s Gas Detection System was bypassed with ongoing drilling operations being conducted".

• In November 2003, MMS fined BP $25,000 dollars for violations that resulted in an oil rig crane falling into the Gulf of Mexico.

• In July 2003, MMS fined BP $20,000 because a subsurface safety valve was “blocked out of service".

• In January 2003, BP was fined $70,000 dollars by MMS for a faulty fire water system. Also that month, BP was fined $80,000 by MMS for bypassing “Relays for the Pressure Safety High/Low for four producing wells".

• In January 2002, MMS fined BP $20,000 dollars for a safety violation.

• In May 2002, MMS fined BP $23,000 dollars for a workplace safety violation that resulted in a worker having his hand injured from an electrical shock.

• In September 2002, MMS fined BP $39,000 dollars for missing 13 monthly tests of an “oil low level sensor.”

• In February 2001, MMS fined BP $20,000 dollars for workplace violations resulting in serious injury to an employee.







Continued Below...






[edit on 23-5-2010 by airspoon]

[color=FFFF00]ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLATIONS – $153 million in penalties/settlements, plus a guilty plea to an environmental felony and one criminal misdemeanor:

• In October 2007, BP agreed to pay a $50 million dollar fine and plead guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act and will serve three years of probation for the Texas City refinery explosion. Additionally, the EPA required BP to pay $785,662 dollars to resolve Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act violations at its Texas City refinery in March 2009. In 2006, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality fined BP $130,625 dollars for unlawful releases of harmful pollutants at its Texas City refinery.

• In October 2007, BP plead guilty to one misdemeanor of the Clean Water Act, agreed to serve three years probation, pay $4 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to support research and activities on the North Slope, pay $4 million in restitution to the State of Alaska and a $12 million fine for spilling 200,000 gallons of crude oil onto the Alaskan tundra in March 2006. Investigators determined the leak was caused by a build up of sediment in the pipe, and that BP failed to properly inspect or clean the pipeline, which is required by law to prevent pipeline corrosion. The investigation revealed that in 2004, the company became aware of increased corrosion in the pipeline. In March 2009, the Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against BP for failing “to comply in a timely manner with a Corrective Action Order” involving this oil spill. In May 2002, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation required BP to pay a $150,000 dollar fine for pipeline leaks.

• In February 2009, BP paid a $12 million dollar civil penalty for “noncompliance with a 2001 consent decree and Clean Air Act regulations requiring strict controls on benzene . . . generated during petroleum refining” at BPs Texas City refinery.

• In March 2005, the South Coast Air Quality Management District forced BP to pay a $25 million penalty and $6 million in past emissions fees for air quality rule violations at BPs Carson refinery.

• In October 2006, BP paid a civil penalty of $900,000 dollars for producing and distributing gasoline that failed to meet Clean Air Act standards.

• In October 2007, BP paid a $6,350 dollar fine for failing to perform adequate corrosion protection inspections at three underground gasoline storage tanks. In June 2007, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality fined BP $869,150 for leaking underground gasoline storage tanks.

• In May 2005, BP paid a $58,687 dollar fine to settle allegations it violated the Clean Air Act at its Whiting, Indiana refinery. In November 2007, the EPA cited BP for numerous Clean Air Act violations at its Whiting facility, and amended this notice of violation in October 2008. In June 2009, the EPA revived additional allegations of Clean Air Act violations at the same refinery.

• In June 2005, BP paid a civil penalty of $115,138 dollars for violations of the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Oil Pollution Act on the Lander and Winkleman Dome Oil Fields in Fremont County, Wyoming within the boundaries of the Wind River Indian Reservation of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes.

• In August 2005, BP paid a civil penalty of $28,360 dollars for violating EPA’s gasoline detergent additive regulations.

• In February 2000, BP paid $22 million dollars to settle criminal and civil charges arising from illegally discharged waste oil and hazardous substances at the company’s North Slope drilling operations. BP was also placed on 5-year probation and was required “to establish a nationwide environmental management system designed to prevent future violations.”

• In February 1995, BP paid $3.9 million dollars to settle charges related to a tanker accident that spilled 400,000 gallons of oil into California’s coastal waters.

• In March 1999, BP paid $1.75 million dollars to settle allegations it violated the Clean Air Act at its Toledo, Ohio refinery.

• In January 2001, BP paid $10 million dollars to resolve allegations it violated the Clean Air Act at 8 of its refineries.

• BP was one of several oil companies found to have contaminated drinking water with MTBE. The companies collectively were required to pay $423,963,564.67 in March 2008. It is unknown what share of this settlement BP was required to pay.



Continued Below...





[edit on 23-5-2010 by airspoon]

[color=FFFF00]PRICE-GOUGING CONSUMERS/TAXPAYERS: $363 million in penalties/settlements:


• In October 2007, BP paid $303 million dollars to settle allegations it manipulated the US propane market. The feds might still be investigating BPs broader role in manipulating crude oil markets: in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 9, 2007, BP revealed that “The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US Department of Justice are currently investigating various aspects of BP’s commodity trading activities, including crude oil trading and storage activities, in the US since 1999.”

• In two separate actions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission fined BP a total of $21 million for manipulating the California electricity market, Enron-style. In October 2007, FERC ordered BP to pay a $7 million civil penalty for engaging in anti-competitative practices with its operation of natural gas pipelines.

• In April 2000, the Department of Justice forced BP to pay $32 million dollars “to resolve claims under the False

• Claims Act and administrative claims that the corporation underpaid royalties due for oil produced on federal and Indian leases since 1988.”

• BP legally escaped paying $172,508,633 in royalties to US taxpayers on leases it operates in the Gulf of Mexico.

• In July 1997, BP's oil traders were found to have colluded with two other firms to fix the price of commissions.




Sources:
www.citizen.org...
publiccitizenenergy.org...
www.osha.gov...
www.osha.gov...
www.contractormisconduct.org...
www.mms.gov...
yosemite.epa.gov...
www.justice.gov...
www.sec.gov...
www.cftc.gov...



[edit on 23-5-2010 by airspoon]

Its unbelievable that companies this woeful and negligent are allowed to continue to do business. They need to start fining in the billions that aught to wake them up. This needs to be seen by more people. Ill do my best to get it out. Thanks.

Some folks really are above the law =\

reply to post by airspoon


Good job.

In light of BP's history, its not really much of a surprise that they have had yet another major "accident." If you can call poor management and the pursuit of profit at the expense of safety and the environment an "accident."

One problem with the logic here is how "operations" actually work.

Most "lead operators" (the ones in charge of the facility) have access to a limitless money supply to keep their facility safe and up to codes, not doing so is generally there own decision (trying to make there yearly bonus's higher for saving the company money)

The lack of responsibility isn't the fault of the company as a whole, its the "lead operators" and there subordinates.

If BP were no longer allowed to operate in the united states, these problems wouldn't magically disappear, they would spread to the other company's (where they already are as well).

You think that just because BP is no longer able to operate, that all those Americans with operator positions are just going to disappear? heck no, there going to apply at Conoco-Phillips and Shell, or anyone else who takes over the facility's (just cause bp's gone doesn't mean the oil is) and those accidents will continue to take place.

I'm not fan boy of BP, so don't accuse me of such, I'm just telling you the reality of the situation, BP being disbanded will not magically make all the accidents in the oil industry disappear from America.

[edit on 5/23/2010 by Alaskan Man]

reply to post by Alaskan Man


I'm a military man myself, have been my entire adult career, almost and the one thing that I know well, is that everything that goes wrong under your watch, is your fault. BP has a responsibility to ensure that their subordinates, employees, contractors and anyone else under their belt, actually tows the line and takes their responsibility seriously. Maybe they should have micro-managed more or maybe they should have paid their employees more. Regardless, it is their fault because it is their responsibility.

For instance, if one of my guys fails to clean his weapon or even learn basic firing skills, it is then my fault if someone gets hurt as a result because I was responsible for making sure that this soldier was squared away. There really are no excuses.

Yes, BP has a much bigger responsibility and it is much more difficult than taking care of a team, squad, platoon or company of soldiers but that's why they get the big bucks.

--airspoon

reply to post by Alaskan Man


I wouldnt accuse you of being a fan boy, and I am not saying you are wrong. Its one of the reasons I stated "poor management" in my post. Of course these corners are being cut because managers want bonuses. But who is paying bonuses for cutting costs rather than for long term value like quality and safety?

We could even go long and blame Wall Street if we wanted to take a broad look at the issue, because they also reward profit, regardless of the social and other costs.

However, we are bashing on BP at the moment, which is why we are picking on them. I disagree that there is nothing served by going after BP for all it is worth. Companies DO have the ability to learn from the mistakes of others, and if they learn it is not profitable to reward mid level managers in such a way that inclines them to cut corners, they may stop doing it.

When the next company does the same thing, we need to go after them for all it is worth as well. The only way to make corporations behave like good world citizens is to make it painfully unprofitable for them not to be. They arent human, they have no conscience. They understand one thing and one thing only, profit. It has to be unprofitable to be irresponsible, and how their managers run their projects is BP's responsibility.

Reading this, it's clear to me that fines don't actually work. All they do is change the tactics.


For example, if BP did an assessment and came to the conclusion that it would cost $300,000 to clean the sediment build-up out of pipes, yet the fine is only $150,000, then it is in their best (financial) interests to just wear the fine.

There needs to be more downsides to just blatantly disregarding the law (oh, and the environment. Oh and everyone that relies on the environment).

Perhaps personal accountability. Whoever gets the richest from (insert company here) is PERSONALLY responsible for how their company makes the money.

Hey good thread. If I had the ATS credentials I'd "Applause" you.

Don't forget other ethical issues, such as BP's Brainwash Marketing to Kids.

PS: You ought to remove the excess "edited on" brackets at the bottom of your posts. I constantly modify my hasty posts and always have to do that.

[edit on 23-5-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

at least some gov. agencies have had the "balls" to fine BP.

I live in Alberta...Suncor and Syncrude get away with murder...likely deep into the government's pockets.

Oil sands projects here get away with murder.

reply to post by wrathchild


I'm sure that BP has gotten away with a whole lot more than what they were held accountable for. I would place a wager that they were only held accountable for a mere 20% or so. That's generally how it works.

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon


Cheaper to ask for forgiveness (pay a fine) than to ask permission (do it right the first time)

Come on people this is corporate America were talking about, foreign company or not !!

reply to post by GobbledokTChipeater


This shouldn't be a surprise when companies have a BUDGET FOR LEGAL FEES, its all about the money and its cheaper to fight it out in court if they are caught mind you then to do it right.

Time to stop funding the government through fines. This is what these corporations are doing.

OSHA for instance gets all of its funding through fines.

How about instead of fining someone that negligently causes harm, how bout throwing there sorry asses in jail.

That may work. This whole corporate and government collusion or complicitness in the debacles we see day in and day out is an abhorrence to me.

Being a recent Site Super for a land development company running sometimes in the neighborhood of 200-300 men at a time, I had one instance of a major injury on my work sites in 5 years. This was the drywall subcontractor using a scissors lift truck delivering rock to a 3rd story. They did not have the safety rails on the side of the truck and the unloader fell off. We did not allow that supplier to work on any of our later projects. My mantra was Safety, Safety, Safety. My company felt the same way. Yes, we did not make maximum profits from our work but my company and I had morals.

Fines are a way of making the government some funding and is usually cheaper in the long run for the companies. Time to put these type of people behind bars where they belong. Period.

man this is sick!!! truley sick
I wonder what the other ol n gas companys havet o hide or were in trouble for. Those people in Katrina were whorded into "cancer alley" where one of mobil's major plants was thier. Thiers a reason its called, cancer alley,w ith all the chemicals used to making gas and diesel thier.
I wonder about SHELL? I heard the ex owner of GULF gas was looney* dont know how true that is though...
wonder about CITGO too, what dirty tactics and fines they all have in thier closet*

reply to post by airspoon


But...but...Rand Paul said we shouldn't be tough to those guys. He can't be wrong, can he?

He's just another corporate hack who's helping big business under the disguise of fostering "freedom".

reply to post by MrXYZ


Wow, so it is Rand Paul's fault.

I wish you partisan hacks would just poof, disappear.

Get a life and come back to the table with some knowledge.

Did Rand Paul get a bunch of Campaign contributions from BP?

If he did, why don't you provide some proof of it. Your immaculate government you want to expand was smoking meth during the time they were supposed to be keeping an eye on BP. How bout that?

Nope, just a partisan hack. Typical.

I hardly think it's Rand's fault though I do have to admit that I have a huge bias. You see, Rand may be for less regulation and the like, but also in a free-market. This would mean that these corporations wouldn't get government favor, which is the problem here. Another company, even a mom & pop, would have just as much of chance as one of these mega-corporations to fight for business. This would ultimately force corporations to straighten up and tow the line or lose their livelihood. So, instead of government regulation, these corporations would be regulated by the market or in other words, by the people.

--airspoon