Slashdot Mirror
BP Ignored Safety Modeling Software To Save Time
DMandPenfold writes "BP ignored the advice of safety modeling software in an attempt to save time before the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a presentation slide (PDF) prepared by US investigators. The slide in question briefly appeared on the Oil Spill Commission's website in error, but was quickly retracted. Advanced cement modeling software, provided by BP's cement contractor Halliburton, had highlighted serious stability concerns with the well."
I think some people need to spend time in jail if this is proven. A lot of time.
Because boycotting BP hurts people that weren't involved in any decision making and doesn't really hurt the ones responsible.
Quality concerns should never be ignored with projects of this scale. Information like this should result in a shutdown of the project until the issue is addressed.
If you are developing a web site, you can get away with defects in quality because of the nature of the web and precompiled code. To correct an issue, all you have to do is deploy code that corrects the problem. There is no impact outside the site itself. If you want to reduce the possibility of things like this happening, you introduce more advanced testing procedures, beta tests with limited numbers of users, and other methods to reduce the potential for a disruption in services.
If you are building an oil rig, the potential risk of disaster has an impact that goes far beyond the capital involved in building the rig itself, and being faithful to the results of quality assessments is essential to avoiding catastrophes like the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Any action failing to meet high quality standards should be considered criminal, as the outcome will have a harm on people / environment / wildlife around the rig.
Reading this powerpoint just makes me angry. BP has been lobbying Congress for a while now to reduce potential penalties they may have to pay, and their marketing arm has been doing a lot of damage control in the public arena. It is very important to hold these people accountable for their actions, since this is the way these people do business.
and ignored any kind of safety precautions, even at the cost of an entire ecosystem .....
....
impossible. that cannot have happened.... because, uncle greenspan said that, corporations could regulate themselves. im agape with surprise.... surely, this must be a one-time incident
Read radical news here
Because boycotting BP hurts people that weren't involved in any decision making
And it helps others. Unless you're driving out of town to buy gas, your money will still go to local businesses.
So, when are you fucks going to realize that there are too many convenient "accidents" and instances of "negligence" and "carelessness"? The American People are so damned stupid because when they get played like a fiddle they deny that there is a fiddler. They will call you crazy and paranoid when you add 2 and 2 and come up with 4 even though they know something somewhere is not as it seems. Having no grasp of the subtle and no knowledge of what statecraft is and has always been, ever since the Romans discovered "bread and circus" or Hegel discovered "problem reaction solution" ... they won't believe the evident until it's absolutely undeniably proven and even then I wonder... Remember, your own President's staff said it best - you never let a crisis go to waste. If you can "overlook" a few things and have a crisis whenever you need one, well that's even "better".
... control of your mind. Here, shut up and look at this, see isn't that shiny, isn't that controversial, argue about that for a while while we do whatever we want.
This oil spill, gays in the military, flag burning, some girl getting kidnapped who is somehow more newsworthy than the thousands of people who get kidnapped every year, embryonic stem cells, and other non-issues all have one thing in common: they're complete non-issues that always come up whenever the American people are getting tired of the latest pointless war. It's all about control, folks
They choose to work for bastards, they get what they deserve.
Seriously, do we overlook what Nazis did in WWII just because they werent the ones doing the gassing?
I'd say BP hurt it's employees. But the real reason there are no boycott campaigns is that people don't make big moral decisions when the SUV is nearing E. Some dont care, others probably think all oil companies are likely as bad, but I'd guess the majority just want a tank of gas.
meep
Some at BP needs to do Pound-me-in-the-ass prison time.
The fact that you and many others condone prison justice in the form of the very acts that cause people to go to prison is a brilliant example of how sad our society has become.
How does one boycott BP? Some markets have no alternatives. Me, I've never seen a BP-branded fueling station in my life, but I've probably burned lots of fuel that went through BP's hands. The oil marketplace has a gordian interchange of resources that defy any attempt of unravelling what came from where. If you really want to boycott BP oil,,you have to swear off oil entirely.
I'm sure that BP did cut a lot of corners that they really should not have, and that this lead to the Deepwater Horizon accident.
On the other hand however there will always be 'more that could have been done' in absolutely every situation, by anybody. There's a fine line between taking into account genuine concerns, and listening to every crank or someone with something to sell peddling expensive solutions to minor risks. Nothing is ever entirely risk-free, and there will ALWAYS be more tests, more safely equipment, more drills etc etc that could have been implemented.
In summary, there's a difference between saying, for example in the event of a car wreck "the driver shouldn't have been drinking" (a genuine concern) and "the driver should have taken weekly driving exams, fitted 2ft of foam rubber to the front of his car, and drove everywhere at 10mph max" (the 'more' that could doubtless have been done). I'm not saying that's the case here, but it's worth bearing in mind.
This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
A "responsible company"? In the oil business?
All of your local gas stations get their gas from the same place. It doesn't matter what brand the label on the pump says.
Yes, the Nazis who didn't commit war crimes are generally not prosecuted.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!