Congress Blames BP

The major events regarding the GOP gusher will occur later this week, but here are a couple new developments.  In the first, BP knew of problems in advance and was negligent about addressing them.

BP knew its Macondo well was troublesome in the days leading up to a fatal April 20 blowout, congressional investigators found, but the company “appears to have made multiple decisions for economic reasons that increased the danger of a catastrophic well failure.”

From the company’s uncommon well design to its fatal decision not to circulate drilling mud, which could have cleared out pockets of gas, and the lack of critical testing, which could have pinpointed problems with its cementing, the company had many points at which it could have prevented an explosion, investigators with the House Energy and Commerce Committee have found.

Instead, the company violated industry guidelines and proceeded “despite warnings from BP’s own personnel and its contractors,” said the chairman of the committee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <McClatchy DC>

Based on this, I have no doubt that BP was criminally negligent.

The second is Tom Costello’s amazing interview.  Rachel Maddow covered this.

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Did she tear his lies to shreds or what?

When I learn things like this I feel so angry that I want to see BP hurt.  I want our leaders take BP to the woodshed.  I want to see them bankrupted.

However, I recognize that it’s a good thing that Barack Obama is remaining cool-headed about the whole thing.  If he did what I (and probably most of you want), it will not produce the results we want to see.  So far, despite a huge list of highly sleazy practices, BP is being somewhat cooperative.  Obama hopes to negotiate a plan whereby BP will pay for cleanup and for damages.  If Obama pushes BP too hard they will stop cooperating and hide behind their lawyers.  It will be a repeat of the Exxon Valdez spill.  After 21 years some claimants have never been paid.  Many never will be, because they died in the interim.  We don’t want this settled bu the courts.  Do you believe that SCOTUS, who just reduced the settlement against Exxon, will allow a just settlement for BP victims?