You know, just when you think you have a handle on how rotten these creeps can be, they get even sleazier.
Now on MSNBC.com - 27 Dead and 55 injured with rivers of fire running down streets in San Martin Texemulcan, Mexico.
Authorities said 12 of the dead were children and estimated that the explosion and resulting spill affected a three-mile (five-kilometer) radius, injuring at least 52 people and scorching more than 115 homes.
And no, I don't exactly call this an accident.
Criminals tap remote pipelines, sometimes building pipelines of their own, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil each year, Pemex has said.
In 2009, the U.S. Justice Department said U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil stolen from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled it across the border in illegal operations led by Mexican drug cartels expanding their reach.
More below on the lawsuit and how US refining companies are in on this horror.
Background on the 5 US companies and lawsuit:
From The Houston Business Journal
Pemex Exploración y Producción is seeking to recover what it estimates to be more than $300 million in losses since 2006.
The unprecedented suit, filed in United States District Court in Houston, names several companies ... BASF Corp. is probably the biggest of the bunch.
Tulsa, Okla.-based Murphy Energy Corp., which has an office in The Woodlands, Trammo Petroleum Inc., San Antonio-based Valley Fuels Ltd. and Brownsville-based U.S. Petroleum Depot Inc. were also named.
According to a BASF spokesperson, they didn't know that all that oil they were getting was stolen.
"The company was unaware that it was stolen material when the company acquired it," said Frank Zeller, a spokesman for BASF, in an e-mailed statement. Zeller said the company is cooperating with "competent authorities and courts."
Huh? How could you be importing that kind of volume of oil and not know where it was actually coming from?
And Americans wonder why so many in the world hate us, given the kind of things too many of our corporation do? Who is going to care for the hurt and injured? Who is going to house the newly homeless? Who is going to comfort those grief stricken parents?
And now, I'm off to do a bit more research on exactly who those 5 U.S. companies are.