Friday, October 30, 2009

My blood is boiling.


There's an item on the news today that British Petroleum--an ugly company with a beautiful logo--is being fined an OSHA record $87 million dollars for shoddy maintenance and safety measures that resulted in an explosion that killed 15 workers in a Houston-area refinery.

We are supposed to feel that this fine (which BP is fighting) is just recompense for BP's history of criminal negligence.

In 2008, BP earned $25.6 billion in profits.

The OSHA fine they received is 1/3 of 1% of those profits. Equivalent to someone making $100,000 being fined $300. For killing 15 people.

6 comments:

Kelly said...

George,

I'm not a fan of dollar-signs on lives. Can't be done, can it? But it does have to be done. The alternative is obviously worse.

You're so right. That's a pathetic slap on the wrist to BP.

And you can bet they'll fight it down to $37 mill before they'll pay.

Ten years from now.

Ugh.

Regards,

Kelly

milchsaeure said...

Of course they'll fight it down. The rest of a mere $50 mill or so is needed to pay the layers of BP.

jeaves said...

I recently had an engineering firm audit our facility for risk assessment. They argued we needed a first response fire fighting team. I said beat it. "You dont think training a couple people to avoid million dollar loss is worth it?" he asked.

Nope.
I was concerned with all the recommendations they put in their final report until higher management told they dont really pay any attention to those reports.

They are the ones who hired the firm. Couple lessons here I think.

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