All Articles Tagged "BP oil spill"
Group Says BP Ignored Blacks in Pay Out
By Charlotte Young
A year after the BP oil spill mishap in the Gulf Coast, the company seems to be picking and choosing who receives part of its $20 billion compensation promise.
It’s this kind of injustice that has Operation People for Peace in outrage. The group is determined to secure equal pay-out treatment for everyone. They represent the many black citizens whose lives were wrecked by the oil spill that have yet to receive any kind of compensation.
To make sure their plight was heard, the campaign sent five of their high-profile campaign officials straight to the door of BP’s headquarters in central London on Wednesday Aug 3. The Voice reports that the five then set up a protest outside of the building.
The campaigners say that BP has given more money in some areas and less to others, looking to give first to those with political connections.
“We had to come all the way to the UK because they have refused to do anything,” they told The Voice.
“They have met with us 14 times and have promised us they would pay in two weeks then in 72 hours. But we have received nothing.”
Also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the spill started in April 2010. About 4.9 million barrels of crude oil and gas were released in to the ocean, resulting in 11 deaths, 17 injuries and countless financial devastation. BP set up the $20 billion compensation fund after the US government found them responsible for the spill.
Operation People for Peace is demanding that the British company allot $488 million to the many small businesses, churches, hoteliers and minorities they represent that were affected by the oil spill. They have filed more than 10,000 claims.
“Almost 90 per cent of our claimants are single parents with an average of two children,” Campaign chairman Dr. Art Rocker told The Voice.
“Their earnings are below the poverty line. They live in geographic locations and are engaged in occupations that were impacted most by the spill.”
Civil rights activist package Gregory told The Voice that he believes Kenneth Feinberg, BP’s representative in charge of dispensing the compensation, “has done nothing but make false promises of payment.”
“I have come to the conclusion that his job is simply to block payments to poor people, not to settle them,” he said.
In response to the protest, a BP spokesperson informed The Voice that Dr. Rocker came to their office in New Orleans several times and that they understand his concerns. The spokesperson goes on to say that claims for compensation due to the oil spill are managed by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) which administers the pay outs using “their own judgment with respect to the evaluation and payment of claims.” They have so far paid out about $5 billion.
The spokesperson also added that Operation People for Peace had spent 45 minutes speaking with a senior representative of the company even though they had made no appointment.
With the group’s concerns still left unheard, the group is planning to take their campaign to the next level, in a mass call to boycott BP.
Shell Accepts Responsibility For Two Nigeria Oil Spills
By Charlotte Young
After years of living in a community devastated by oil spills, the Bodo people in Nigeria can finally exhale a bit. Msnbc.com reports that oil giant Shell, which is responsible for oil spills in Nigeria, has accepted responsibility for two large spills and will compensate the community in an English court for the environmental damage to their land.
The case is considered the first of its kind because it will take place in a court in the UK, where cases usually have more media coverage and larger payouts.
“The mood music is changing — oil companies are going to have to start no longer employing a double standard for the developing world and apply the same standards for America and Europe,” Daniel Leader, one of the lawyers for the Bodo people told msnbc.com.
Protest groups have become increasingly more vocal in attempts to seek compensation against large western oil companies. The Bodo people, comprised of a community of about 69,000, live in Bodo, Ogoniland, along the oil-rich creeks of the Niger delta.
While their eco-system and livelihood have been threatened by the activities of western oil companies for five decades, Shell has recently claimed responsibility for two large oil spills in 2008 and 2009.
Shell stopped pumping oil from Ogoniland in the early 1990s, but still owns pipelines and oil infrastructures in the region that can leak. Rights groups claim that oil companies have done decades worth of damage to the environment in Nigeria.
According to Reuters, the two spills in 2008 and 2009 amount to about 20 percent of the amount spilled into the Gulf of America by BP during the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Audrey Gaughran, director of the Global Thematic Issues Programme at Amnesty International, tells msnbc.com that “BP did more in 6-months for the U.S. communities than Shell has done in 50 years for the Ogoniland.”
But this current case opens Shell up to possibilities of greater financial loss in the future. Ben Amunwa, a spokesperson for the British group PLATFORM, an international energy company monitoring group, says that the decision in this case could leave Shell facing a host of claims stemming back to fifty years of environmental desolation along the Niger delta.
A spokesperson from Shell’s Nigerian company tells msnbc.com that the company acknowledges the two big spills, but says that most of the other spills that took place, including 13 in the Bodo area this year, are the result of “sabotage and theft.”
U.S. Files Civil Suit Against Firms in Oil Spill
(Wall Street Journal) — The U.S. Justice Department filed a civil oil-spill lawsuit Wednesday against a BP PLC unit and several other companies, the federal government’s first major legal action in the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The other defendants are subsidiaries of Transocean Ltd., which owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig; Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and MOEX Offshore 2007, which had financial stakes in the oil well; and QBE Underwriting Ltd./Lloyd’s Syndicate 1036, a Transocean insurer.
Nonprofits Lend to Gulf Coast Businesses
(Businessweek) — Last year, Mary Metoyer’s New Orleans flooring company took in just $80,000 in revenue, one-third of her annual revenue before Hurricane Katrina struck. Her customer base of landlords and homeowners had started to return, but many were then hurt financially by the BP (BP) oil spill. When the bank she went to for a $10,000 loan lost her paperwork a few months after Katrina, she says she didn’t have the heart to restart the application. Metoyer did try her luck with a nonprofit, applying for a $10,000 loan early this year. She received the money last spring, paid it off, and took out a second loan in September, for $6,000, to upgrade her 25-year-old showroom in New Orleans’ Warehouse District. “Even though these are little loans, they have been a big, big help with financing some larger jobs I’m doing,” says Metoyer, 64.
Spike Lee’s Latest Documentary Takes On BP
“If God Is Willing & Da Creek Don’t Rise,” Spike Lee’s latest HBO film, documents New Orleans life in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the new troubles brought on by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The four-hour, two-part documentary is a follow-up to Lee’s award winning 2006 film “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts.”
BP Ignores Civilians, Uses Inmates for Clean Up
Louisiana inmates were allowed to get some fresh air, but didn’t exactly enjoy the beach as they were hired to clean up the oil from the April British Petroleum spill.
Tony Hayward: A Fall Guy Made In The USA
CEOs must recognize “the inextricably intertwined roles of symbolism and substance in the office of CEO today,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management.
Sonnenfeld was referring to Tony Hayward, the BP CEO who has been strongly criticized for his apathetic handling of the oil spill disaster. Since he hasn’t been able to impress the sensitive American public with his ‘all business, no emotion’ strategy, Hayward has had to suffer the wrath usually experienced by public figures in the U.S.
He didn’t understand why Obama had to claim the he had to kick somebody’s A$$ and feign anger around the Oil Spill, because, the American public somehow got the idea that Obama did have the power to prevent the spill and stop it instantly by kicking A$$.
As a result of his lack of PR skills, Hayward will most likely be forced to step down in the next 24 hours. Does it make sense? No. In the lands across the Atlantic, it is safe to say that Hayward’s behavior wouldn’t have cost him his job. That’s because there are realistic expectations there. You do a good job or you don’t. End of story. In America apparently, in order to become president of a company, you also need to be a media-trained celebrity.
According to the Wall Street Journal, he was successful as a financial officer.
“BP has said that Mr. Hayward’s cost-cutting drive—$4 billion in reduced costs in 2009 alone.”
Hayward’s fault was that he didn’t play the game. And for that, he will suffer. Although, we can presume he won’t suffer too much. BP has to appease the influential American public now and although they may not want to part with Hayward, they will make sure his severance package reflects their sentiments.
It’s a good reminder for all global leaders to not only get a master’s in business administration but also in public relations.
U.S. Drills Deep Into BP as Spill Drama Drags On
(Wall Street Journal) — Bob Dudley, BP PLC’s lead executive in the Gulf of Mexico, spotted his U.S. government counterpart, retired Adm. Thad Allen, at the New Orleans hotel where both were staying earlier this month. Wanting to say good night after a long day, Mr. Dudley instead got fresh orders.
BP Well Spill Contained, But Don’t Jump for Joy Yet
We cannot take a collective sigh of relief yet.
The containment cap that was put on the ruptured well leaking for months now, seems to have worked as of this morning. Although no oil has leaked out through the night into this morning, BP still plans on reviewing the well every six hours. BP officials said that the cap isn’t a permanent solution– it’s just the first step in taking care of the destruction that has ruined the Gulf coast line for nearly three months.
BP Finally Stops Oil Spewing into Gulf
(Black America Web) — The oil has stopped. For now. After 85 days and up to 184 million gallons, BP finally gained control over one of America’s biggest environmental catastrophes Thursday by placing a carefully fitted cap over a runaway geyser that has been gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico since early spring.
