Someone doesn't like my blog

Following up on a previous blog about BP resuming oil drilling in the Gulf and Transocean giving millions in bonuses to their executives, I wrote another blog entry this morning discussing the decision to put the bonus money into a victims compensation fund. The main theme was that a little outrage can do some good.

I went on to point out that both Transocean and BP have been dragging their feet in paying out the compensation money to Gulf oil spill victims. When I was done, I expected it to be shared on my Facebook page, but to my surprise I received a notice informing me that it  had "content marked as abusive" and some other nonsense, and so it was blocked.

Anyone reading this on the Ecocryptic blog website only needs to read the next entry down to see how ridiculous this is. I'm asking for a clarification, but haven't heard back from the Facebook people.

It'll be interesting to see if this entry gets bocked as well.

A Little Outrage Helps Transocean See the Light

If anyone doubts the effectiveness of shedding a little daylight on corporate behavior, consider the outburst following the revelation that Transocean paid out millions in bonuses to its top executives for its “exemplary safety record.”

This was the company that was building the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and spilling millions of gallons of oil into the gulf. They had either forgotten the whole thing, or considered the workers expendable – just the cost of doing business.

When news of the bonuses surfaced a few days ago, the blogosphere lit up with outrage that finally filtered to the larger news media. The company thought better of their decision, and the executives announced the money would go to the victims’ compensation fund.

That sounds nice, but the story’s not over. Both BP and Transocean have set up victims compensation funds, ostensibly to pay for the damages they caused. BP has launched a slick PR campaign making it seem that everything has gone back to normal, and people are getting the money they deserve for the losses they suffered.

Not so.

Both Transocean and BP have been dragging their feet paying out for the damage they caused, either by being slow in issuing checks, paying out way less than expected, or in many cases simply not paying at all.

 The state governments of Louisiana, Mississsippi, and Alabama are all in the process of filing lawsuits to get them to shake loose some of their billions.

We see the ads, but we don’t see the news. Why not?

April Fools: US gov’t gives BP go-ahead for more Gulf drilling

At first I thought it was some kind of sick joke, but unfortunately it’s true.

It was just a year ago this month that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and touching off one of the greatest environmental disasters in history. Now comes word that BP will resume deep water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico beginning this summer.

Even sadder, this news was reported first by the European news agency Reuters, the Sunday Times of London, and another British newspaper The Guardian. As of this morning, no major American news outlet had yet reported it. Why?

Who do you see paying for the evening news? It comes courtesy of BP buying time for those commercials featuring happy yokels talking about what a great job the company has done cleaning up the mess and handing out money.

A few other stories never made it to the evening news … BP stock went up when it spread the word that it wouldn‘t be paying out as much in damages as it had said it would. That was reported in the Financial Times, another British news outlet, but never made it to the news here. And then there was the small matter of the “missing” laptop that had the claims information for thousands of claimants. Hey, anybody can make a mistake. We all know how easy it is to lose a laptop.

Back to the drilling.

According to the people who are supposed to be regulating offshore drilling, everything is all better now.

Since February 17, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has granted eight of these permits. Bureau director Michael Bromwich told The Guardian the permits were issued because of the “industry’s ability to satisfy the enhanced safety requirements.”

That’s comforting. The investigation into the Deepwater Horizon explosion found that BP and the other companies involved pressured workers to take safety shortcuts to speed the project along. The Justice Department, by the way, is “considering” manslaughter charges in the case. No sense rushing things, I suppose.

It gets more bizarre.

The Swiss company Transocean, which was building the rig for BP, announced this week that it was handing out bonuses to its executives for their “exemplary” safety record. The company also reported an $800 million loss in the last quarter of last year. That merited a $375,000 bonus for CEO Steven Newman.

Go figure.