BP’s Inconvenient Gaff

BP’s ruddy-cheeked, handsome Welsh-featured winning CEO will, predicts the Sage Grouse, be retiring before Independence Day.  Independence Day is the day when we celebrate being independent from….. the English.  Or so we thought.

We are no longer so independent in this global economy.  While we have surrendered a huge portion of our automotive industry to the Japanese and our petroleum industry to Royal Dutch Shell and BP,  Toyota and BP have betrayed our trust and betrayed our people.

The Gaff:  “I want my life back.”  It is SO inconvenient to kill 11 people and thousands of marine mammals, sharks, pelicans, terns, gulls and others; it is SO bothersome to have to cut short my golf and sleep and family time to confront the press about the thousands of acres of despoiled wetlands.  “I want my life back.”  A cartoon character would have more sensitivity.

I was talking with a client from Mississippi who operates oil and gas wells in several states; he is sick with disgust.  Every restaurant, hotel, tourist destination, and all of the workers who work in those places are out of work and out of money.  Minimum wage employees of hotels and bait shops and convenience stores and coffee shops are unable to make their car payments and child support payments.  Are these people going to get big legal settlements or fat checks from BP?  Probably not.  Or, if they do, in ten years.

This well could have been a huge home run for BP and its 25% partner Anadarko Petroleum.  It is blowing 15 to 25 to 40 thousand barrels per day of oil and massive quantities of gas.  This well is a dream come not-so-true turned into a nightmare. 15,000 bbl per day times $70 is real money.  Instead, this well is the largest environmental disaster in US history.

Lots of people want their lives back.  Their real lives, not their social lives.  Mr. CEO, take a hike.