Stefanie Penn Spear
On April 24, BP engineer Kurt Mix was arrested on criminal charges of intentionally destroying evidence concerning the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon disaster two years ago. The charges allege that BP might have misled Americans and the government about the flow rate of oil pouring into the gulf.
The charges against Mix, brought on by the U.S. Department of Justice, mark the first criminal case against BP in reference to the Gulf Oil spill that on April 20, 2010, killed 11 oil rig workers, injured 17 others and released about 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the ocean for more than three months. This disaster devastated the Gulf region’s economy, and threatened—and continues to threaten—the health of its residents and the environment.
I was interviewed today by Andrea Sears, news editor for WBAI-Pacifica Radio. Listen to the interview below for details on the criminal charges against Mix and my thoughts on other charges the Justice Department should consider investigating.
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Mix is being charged with deleting more than 200 texts with his supervisor and 100 text messages with a BP contractor concerning how much oil was flowing from the well head after the blowout.
As I mentioned in the interview with Sears, strict regulations need to be adopted for off-shore oil drilling before any more permits are issued.
Thanks to Save Our Gulf, an initiative of Waterkeeper Alliance in support of Gulf Waterkeepers directly impacted by the BP oil disaster, for creating a petition to encourage the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to adopt the Oil Spill Commission’s recommendations for strict regulations on off-shore oil drilling.
Sign the petition today and ask the directors of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to enforce strict regulations that make off-shore oil drilling safe.
BP needs to go. They are reckless in their practices and they lie. Who would actually invest in this unprofessional corporation?
I know it’s in vogue to pile on BP but in my view I feel we (the U.S. & oil industry) where really lucky with this blow out. Had this involved a smaller player such as say a Hess Oil there’s a good chance we’d be looking at two bankrupt companies (Hess & Transocean) as neither would have been able to absorp the losses and the tax payer would be on the hook. Technically, as the rig operator, Transocean had ultimate authority, just as an airline pilot does, to say yeah or nay to any customer demands. In short Transocean rolled over & BP is picking up the tab.
Kudos to Uncle Sam though, way to crack down on those rogue txt msg deleters. Good Grief!
Also before you label me an oil lobbyist we live in the NW & drive a Saab & Subaru (both 4 cyl MTs) but neither runs well on solar panels or a wind turbine:-).
Tony