A Bad Day for BP and Mr. Barton
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Editorial
The New York Times
June 17, 2010
It’s hard to imagine anyone having a worse day than Tony Hayward, BP’s embattled chief executive, who spent Thursday in the cross hairs of an angry Congressional committee and turned in a mind-bogglingly vapid performance. But he got a run for his money from Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, who inexplicably decided to call the escrow account agreed to by BP and the White House a “$20 billion shakedown.”
If Mr. Barton was trying to be supportive of Mr. Hayward, who looked like he had not slept in weeks, he failed. Mr. Hayward delivered an opening statement full of contrition for the immense damage his company has done. He then faced Henry Waxman and other veteran interrogators armed with truckloads of documents suggesting that BP had behaved sloppily at best and at worst sidestepped safety precautions to save money.
Mr. Hayward insisted that he had never heard of any problems in drilling and completing the well that is now spouting 60,000 barrels of oil a day. He further confessed that he did not even know his company was drilling the doomed well until the day it hit oil.
“I had no prior knowledge of the drilling of this well, none whatsoever,” he told Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican. “With respect, sir, we drill hundreds of wells a year around the world.” To which Mr. Burgess shot back: “That’s what’s scaring me now.”
While the final verdict on this disaster is not in, BP’s boss should at least be prepared to concede what everyone else in the world knows: BP was utterly unprepared to handle a blowout at 5,000 feet below sea level. As Mr. Waxman put it, “There is not a single e-mail or document that shows you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at the well.”
BP’s cause was hardly helped by “Smoky Joe” Barton, a reliable friend of big coal and big oil and no stranger to rhetorical excess. His “shakedown” remark was too much for some of his Republican colleagues, especially those from other gulf states. Jeff Miller of Pensacola, Fla., said Mr. Barton was “out of touch.” Even John Boehner, the House minority leader, who normally cannot resist a partisan roundhouse, said “BP ought to be held responsible for every dime of this tragedy.”
Apparently chastened by these and other reprimands, Mr. Barton later apologized for his apology to Mr. Hayward and said he regretted using the word “shakedown.” He was not entirely convincing. |
