Was BP The Victim Of A Terrible Accident... Or Are They Perps Who Should Be Driven Into Bankruptcy?

We've all heard Joe Barton and other Republican Big Oil shills apologizing to BP and we're all aware of the hysterical and pernicious fits by corporate lackeys like David Vitter, Haley Barbour and Sarah Palin insisting that the business of government is... business. I have an automatic filter that spares me all this systemic corruption. After a career inside the American corporate system my instinctual distrust for our country's corporate elites was even further enhanced by a Marketplace show I heard on NPR last week. The reporter is Stephen Beard, Marketplace's bureau chief and what his commentary was nothing short of astounding. Tess Vigland got the ball rolling by reminding her listeners of something few of us need to be reminded of, namely that if one is asked to "name the most unpopular corporation doing business in the U.S. today, chances are you'd settle on the one responsible for the moratorium. And the historic oil spill that preceded it. BP's name is now forever identified with the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. But back home in Britain, there's quite a bit more sympathy." Beard steps in to explain:

Last week, Britain's Tate Art Gallery threw a party for BP to thank the oil giant for its 20 years of sponsorship. But a handful of protesters created a bit of a splash in the oil giant's backyard. They dumped half a dozen cans of thick brown liquid all over the gallery steps. Partygoers and Passersby were shocked, baffled, outraged.

MAN IN THE STREET: This is a very bad publicity stunt! I disapprove of this.

BEARD: BP still has many friends in Britain and it's well regarded by the general public, says oil analyst Chris Skrebowski.

CHRIS SKREBOWSKI: It's been thought of as a decent, well-run company with a good environmental record, a good social record. And therefore something to be proud of.

BEARD: But this was the company behind a string of American disasters. The Prudhoe Bay spill; the Texas City Refinery Fire, and now Deepwater Horizon. Critics say former chief executive Lord Browne created all these disasters with relentless cost-cutting. Tom Bower is author of "Oil Money Politics and Power."

TOM BOWER: Amongst the costs he dramatically cut were the costs of maintenance and safety and releasing many hundreds of engineers.

BEARD: Bower says a maniacal ambition drove Browne. He wanted to displace Exxon-Mobil and make BP the biggest oil company in the world. Instead, he says, Browne left behind a disaster zone.

How dare they, huh? This is very much the way U.S. corporations treat human beings in Third World countries. It's what I meant to convey earlier this morning when I quoted Thom Hartmann looking out into the not-too-distant future and spelling out for us that we either have to change or perish and that "The new economic structure must consider, in every transaction, the environmental cost to all human (and corporate, and governmental) behavior, and appropriately mitigate that cost." BP didn't give a hoot about that. As Beard's guest, Tom Bower went on the explain, "Amongst the costs he dramatically cut were the costs of maintenance and safety and releasing many hundreds of engineers." Browne was clearly a typical corporate sociopath-- and he left a predictable catastrophe for his former company, not to mention the Gulf of Mexico and the areas that border it. "BP," continued Bower, "was really always on a knife-edge, always cutting corners, and to an extent it was a maverick corporation, shooting from the hip." But these kinds of environmental disasters haven't happened in the U.K. Why? Well, that's where the Republican Party's love for banana republicanism comes into play. Beard again:

Twenty two years ago, a gas leak on an American platform off Britain's Coast caused the world's worst offshore disaster. One hundred and sixty seven workers on the Piper Alpha rig died in the fire. Much tougher regulation ensued. Malcolm Webb speaks for British offshore operators. He says Piper Alpha...

MALCOLM WEBB: ..took us into an entirely different direction as regards safety and the management of our resources in the offshore.

BEARD: Britain split up licensing of operators from safety monitoring, unlike in the U.S. And another critical difference. No drilling operator ever gets a license here now without a meticulous safety assessment showing.

WEBB: That he is operating that installation so as to reduce to the lowest extent practicable the risks to human life and to the environment through oil spill.

BEARD: BP admits it never performed assessments on any of its U.S. wells because the U.S. government never required that.

In fact, it was much cheaper for B.P. and the oil industry in general to just buy off conservative politicians-- much cheaper. Still sitting in the Senate are 10 members-- all conservatives, of course-- who have taken over half a million dollars in thinly veiled direct bribes from Big Oil and all have worked to make sure BP would never be required to undergo the expensive regulatory regime they are forced to endure back in their home country. These ten should all be in prison:

John McCain (R-AZ)- $2,677,524
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)- $2,137,225
John Cornyn (R-TX)- $1,652,150
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)- $1,231,523
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)- $862,561
David Vitter (R-LA)- $791,335
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)- $758,744
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)- $601,625
John Thune (R-SD)- $577,662
Arlen Specter (R/D-PA)- $566,028

And there are 10 House members, again all conservatives, in the same cozy little club: handmaidens for Big Oil who have taken at least half a million dollars each from Big Oil executives and lobbyists:

Joe Barton (R-TX)- $1,458,530
Don Young (R-AK)- $981,263
Mike Conaway (R-TX)- $652,718
Pete Sessions (R-TX)- $645,864
Todd Tiahrt (R-KS)- $628,073
Kay Granger (R-TX)- $612,807
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)- $578,210
Roy Blunt (R-MO)- $532,898
Ralph Hall (R-TX)- $530,468
John Sullivan (R-OK)- $529,950

They also belong in prison-- along with the BP executive and lobbyists. But that's not going to happen... not ever. Even now, as we mentioned earlier today, Republican conservatives, each with financial connections to Big Oil, are urging that oil companies be allowed to drill in the Great Lakes, the source of drinking water for 40 million Americans. The U.S. learned nothing from this, although England did: