In the months before BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig sank in a ball of fire in the Gulf of Mexico, the company had four close calls on pipelines and facilities it operates in Alaska, according to a letter from two congressmen obtained by ProPublica [2].
In that letter, dated Jan. 14, 2010, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., noted that the company’s efforts to cut costs could imperil safety at BP facilities.
Between September 2008 and November 2009, three BP gas and oil pipelines on Alaska’s North Slope ruptured or clogged, leading to a risk of explosions, the letter said. A potentially cataclysmic explosion was also avoided at a BP gas compressor plant, where a key piece of equipment designed to prevent the buildup of gas failed to operate, and the backup equipment intended to warn workers was not properly installed.
Surprised I have not heard this on ABC, NBC, CBS or other networks. Probably because their serious journalists are busy successfully churning Drudge bait. In the beltway media- inconsequential tone deaf behavior that translate into easily promoted gotcha moments with anonymous internal sources infighting are far more important than causes, blame, and solutions. Because there is important and useful, and then there is SEXY.
But things will be better once we have a Republican congress!
Dave Fud
The oil will be sexy when all of the bikini-clad women come out of the gulf covered in black tar. Pictures in a few weeks.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Oh you will. The Alaska angle means they’re currently locked in a bidding war over who gets to interview Halfernor Palin first.
AhabTRuler
The WSJ says the shear rams on the BOP might not have been powerful enough to cut through the drill pipe used in deep water:
Also Zuzu’s Petals came up with this site, which seems to have some good technical information.
beltane
There’s nothing remotely sexy about the things that matter to the overpaid, feeble minded little courtiers that infest the media. Skankey, yes; sexy, no. Too bad there’s never been an oil spill at one of Sally Quinn’s soirées.
Corner Stone
This is an e-mail passing round certain professional service circles.
Don’t have any provenance for it, so take it as you will:
beltane
@kommrade reproductive vigor: She’s already blaming the furriners at BP, like her husband who worked for them for 18 years. Even on this subject she has nothing remotely intelligent to say.
AhabTRuler
@Corner Stone: I think it’s wider than that. At this point, it has had time to go twice around the intertubes with time to stop for drinks.
slag
This whole situation is incredibly infuriating. Businesses cut costs in order to maximize profit. It’s what they do. I don’t want to blame BP per se; I’m more interested in blaming the system that enabled BP’s behavior.
We need to stop pretending to believe in “corporate citizenship”. We need to put much more tension into the system in order to limit these disasters. Sternly worded letters and Senate hearing scoldings are no longer acceptable repercussions. Far too many risks are being taken with our public resources. We’ve been too patient for too long. It simply has to change.
As to the media: They’re gossipy assholes. It’s what they do. I’m tired of enabling them too.
Brachiator
Some BP problems are old news, previously reported, and studiously ignored (BP accused of ‘draconian’ cost cuts prior to Alaskan pipeline spill, Guardian UK 1 May 2007 )
Not much came of the congressional investigations. But we all knew the ending of that story.
Corner Stone
@AhabTRuler: Yeah. Drinks.
AhabTRuler
Well, we could all use a stiff drink.
JGabriel
Hmm. Who do I know that worked for BP in Alaska?
Wow, right after Todd left, BP’s Alaska pipelines stopped rupturing.
Correlation? Or… CAUSATION?!
.
Mike Kay
Todd’s a Jonah
Brachiator
@JGabriel:
Maybe they had been reacting to the sound of Sarah Palin’s voice. Also, too.
Douglas
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of BP’s leaks in Alaska on either Countdown or Rachel Maddow’s show… though it was more of an aside, IIRC.
GregB
Matt Drudge is the king of moron world.
jwb
@Corner Stone: Halliburton was responsible for the cement job, no?
mai naem
What dontcha understand here? Obamaman deliberately let BP get away with this so that this would elephantize into a humongous ecological disaster so that he would not have to authorize any oil drilling. Also too, him and his CIA and FBI knew about this Shazad guy planning to bomb Times Square and this allowed the media to take the heat off the BP/Obama Katrina disaster. Jeez, do I have to explain everything to you people.
Zuzu's Petals
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, there are a few first-or-second-hand stories going around out there. Here’s another one:
How these comport with each other, or the account of the fisherman who saw the rig venting water and then methane just before the explosion, I don’t know. I’m guessing the guys at the mariner and drilling boards will have it figured out before the media.
Zuzu's Petals
Sorry about the block quote fail @19. Somehow couldn’t edit it.
Obviously the text in caps is all part of the linked post.
melmoth
But didn’t you read the story? “eyebrows were raised.” EYEBROWS WERE RAISED!! dammit.
kay
I think it’s amazing that media continue to treat a calamity caused by an oil company as a natural disaster.
All of the bad reporting comes from that first ludicrous comparison. Once they all adopted that, they were off to the races, running in a pack in the wrong direction.
As long as they focus on government’s response to BP’s failure, they don’t have to focus on BP’s failure, or drilling.
I’m starting to love ProPublica.
satby
@mai naem: I wish that was clear snark, but as I was gassing up the car yesterday some good ol’ boy at the next pump started to talk about the prices going up and that “some damn enviromentalists had sabotaged the rig so that all off-shore drilling would have to stop”. When I told him that didn’t make sense he was incredulous that I didn’t believe it was sabotage by “enviromentalists”.
This nation is lost, I swear to FSM.
Dr. Benway
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Insofar as FOX ‘news’ is concerned – it’s worth noting the largest stockholder outside the family of CEO Rupert Murdoch is Saudi oil tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns a 7 percent stake in Fox News’ parent company News Corp.
FOX just rejected showing a VoteVets ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbyWiFpDNXM) arguing that “a clean energy climate plan would cut our dependence on foreign oil in half and cut oil profits for hostile nations” on the basis of it being “confusing”
Esperanza Morell
I am so glad that BP is now beginning to get the spill under control.