By Michael Fawcett / Staff Writer
By Michael Fawcett / Staff Writer
One may think that the company responsible for the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico would apologize for the faults they made that caused irreparable damage to families and the environment; yet, we find ourselves in a corporate debacle.
BP has published detailed reports of what they believe caused the explosion and documented what they have done to try to rectify their mistakes.
In these reports, remorse seems to be lacking. In the recent 193 page report, it never mentions the words blame, regret, apology, mistake or pollution.
Do these kinds of words belong in the report? They probably do.
While the report is highly technical and filled with incomprehensible ideas, some digging reveals it was a bad cementing job that contributed to the blowout and the blame is placed on Halliburton, the contractor responsible for the work.
In a retort, Halliburton claims that it did the job to the requested specifications. Throughout the course of the past several months, BP seems to be spreading the blame across its contractors and making efforts not to connect the company’s name with the word “fault.”
Consequently, this does not settle well with the offshore drilling company Transocean, who blasted the report as a self-serving attempt to conceal the fatally flawed well design.
“BP blaming others for the Gulf oil disaster is like Bernie Madoff blaming his accountant,” said Robert Gordon, an attorney for those affected by the spill.
The report is labeled as the “BP blame game” and for seemingly good reason.
It goes on to say that human error was likely made by their employees on the rig; however, internal investigators say that the team did not identify any single action or inaction that caused this accident.
Perhaps the accident was caused by negligence or errors unbeknownst to rig workers.
In any event, as Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), puts it, “BP is happy to slice up the blame as long as they get the smallest piece.”
BP has purchased a significant amount of ad time on television to say that they are accepting full responsibility for the clean up and recovery of the gulf, but shouldn’t that be a given?
While it seems like an attempt to make amends, it’s shallow at best. In the meantime the oil giant writes off checks to the government and families mourn the losses of the 11 killed in the accident. Apologies are due to them, as well as the American people.
Substantial harm has come to our shorelines and ocean, and affecting many local businesses and wildlife.
The disaster displaced thousands of workers who are left pondering what’s to become of their livelihood. The labor department has set aside emergency funds for those displaced workers seeking reimbursement from BP until they can get back into the workforce.
Furthermore, the impact on the environment has been detrimental and many species are suffering grave consequences thanks to the over 200 million barrels of oil that seeped into the ocean.
Though repairing their image after this disaster is going to be a public relations nightmare, pointing the finger elsewhere isn’t helping their case. Expressing a sincere apology and doing their best to atone for their wrong-doings may quell the anger many of us feel.
It seems in BP’s best interest to be as forthcoming as they can be about what happened, and take responsibility for the events that occurred. A project of this proportion is checked for dotted i’s and crossed t’s. In closing, a proper explanation is due, and while BP did not return questions recently concerning an apology, hopefully one is on the way.