Well, some U.S. lawmakers went ahead and said it. They accused BP of taking risky shortcuts on their well that, “increased the danger of a catastrophic well failure." On one hand I want to say, no kidding, like anyone had to actually come out and say that- it’s obvious that what is going on here is a systemic acceptance of not knowing the risks and just doing whatever had to be done to make sure the profits kept running in. But, on the other hand, I want to stand up and applaud some of our lawmakers for going out on a limb and accusing BP, publicly, of not only breaking the law but of making risky decisions that are now unmakeable and have damaged the U.S. shoreline and the Gulf of Mexico forever. They said:

“It appears that BP repeatedly chose risky procedures in order to reduce costs and save time and made minimal efforts to contain the added risk." And these are not low level guys trying to get a name in the paper. This is Representative Henry Waxman and Representative Bart Stupak, both top Democrats on the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. No more oil money for their campaigns.

The actual accusation is that BP chose a well design without very many safety measures, specifically having only a few barriers to guard against surging methane gas. It turns out that that is exactly what happened, causing explosions that killed people and eventually caused this well over 50 day massive leak. So, they skimped and they got caught. It’s not the first time, I would wager, that they shorted the safety for the well design.  

Tony Hayward didn’t have anything to say. Well, all he had to say was that there was nothing to say.

"It would be inappropriate to comment on these matters in advance. No doubt they will raise these matters during the hearing," said Toby Odone, BP spokesman, in a written comment.

Ok, so you’re going to go before Congress and you don’t want to play your hand. I’m fine with that. But now that you know the question, at least show up with an admission. At least come in and say, yes, we chose that for the well, and we’ve chosen it many times in the past and it worked fine. We chose it because we are a company and we put profit ahead of what we consider excessive safety measures, though now we see that we did the wrong thing. It won’t happen again.

If BP comes out and tries to defend the decision, they will never hear they end of it and they will cement their position as diabolical evil, whether they are or not.

Apparently they were in a hurry and were trying to save money. Ok, that happens. But people died. And then there’s the oil. This is a negligent decision that you have to own up to as a company. There is no defending it. Just take the blame and pay for it. That’s all there is left to do, BP.

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum