The presidential panel investigating the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has found no evidence so far that employees made decisions to put profit ahead of safety, Chief Counsel Fred Bartlit said today.
Environmental groups and lawmakers have said BP cut corners to reduce costs as the company prepared to complete the doomed well 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast and relocate the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased from Transocean Ltd. to another project. The U.S. House in July passed legislation that would bar BP from future offshore drilling leases based on the company’s U.S. safety record.
“We have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars to safety,” Bartlit said today at a hearing of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in Washington. “We have not found a situation where we can say a man had a choice between safety and dollars and put his money on dollars. We haven’t seen it.”
Full Story: Gulf Oil-Spill Commission Finds No Evidence BP Put Saving Cash Over Safety – Bloomberg