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May 5, 2010

Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well

By Greg Palast

I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP).

That's important to know, because the way BP caused devastation in Alaska is exactly the way BP is now sliming the entire Gulf Coast.

Tankers run aground, wells blow out, pipes burst. It shouldn't happen, but it does. And when it does, the name of the game is containment. Both in Alaska, when the Exxon Valdez grounded, and in the Gulf last week, when the Deepwater Horizon platform blew, it was British Petroleum that was charged with carrying out the Oil Spill Response Plans (OSRP), which the company itself drafted and filed with the government.

  

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Furious Louisiana officials accuse BP of destroying fragile marshes

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Amy Goodman: Massey Energy, British Petroleum should face criminal probes

Shell reports record oil spillages in Nigeria

BP told feds it could handle oil spill 60 times larger than Deepwater Horizon

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Deepwater Horizon

How Bush's DOJ Killed a Criminal Probe Into BP That Threatened to Net Top Officials