According to Talking Points Memo Fred Bartlit, the head of the Oil Spill Commission, has completely exonerated BP of the charge that it ignored safety concerns to save money.
"To date we have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety," Bartlit said at a hearing today. "
Words fail me. The instances in which BP ignored safety concerns in are numerous and well documented.
Congressman Ed Markey does not agree with Bartlit.
"When the culture of a company favors risk-taking and cutting corners above other concerns, systemic failures like this oil spill disaster result without direct decisions being made or tradeoffs being considered," he said in a statement. "BP has a long and sordid history of cutting costs and pushing the limits in search of higher profits
I could document this long and sordid history, but it would take a while, and I'm sure most of you know it already. What is shocking to me is the blatant in-your-face statement which is obviously false. They're not even trying to pretend that they don't run the whole damn show anymore. The message is, they are in charge, get used to it.