Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GPS Info who wrote (73407)	5/9/2010 4:34:19 AM
From: Maurice Winn	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

It wasn't my job other than in a minor way. People who don't want to hear things are notoriously bad at hearing. <//I used to warn BP Oil about the risk to the company of having become an American oil company - liabilities are essentially unlimited.// I think you did a poor job. > Look how difficult it is to persuade you. You have a mindset and that's that. So pile on. BTW have you ever crashed a car? Or are you accident-free. Ever had a speeding ticket? <They were already quite obsessive in the 1980s about health and safety. It was much more than window dressing. => hogwash. > You are expressing your ignorance. I used to get the reams of health and safety guff. Quoting somebody having asbestos disease shows how you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Check the dates of that one. Mqurice

To: GPS Info who wrote (73407)	5/9/2010 5:44:49 AM
From: Snowshoe	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

A colorful episode from BP's history in Alaska... BP has a history of safety failures PROFIT: Corporate culture called putting earnings over maintenance, environment. adn.com By RICHARD MAUER Last Modified: May 8th, 2010 11:29 PM In Alaska, BP first brought unwelcome attention on itself 20 years ago in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon was a partner of BP in the Prudhoe Bay oil field and shared in the ownership of the trans-Alaska pipeline system, which then was headed by a BP official. After a series of leaked documents to the media and Congress showing how Alyeska failed to live up to its promises to contain spills -- the final straw was a critical documentary that aired on British TV -- Alyeska's president, longtime BP executive James Hermiller, who was on loan to the company, ordered an undercover operation to track down the leaker. Their chief suspect was Chuck Hamel, a former congressional aide and oil broker in Alexandria, Va., who became a conduit between industry whistleblowers and reporters. In February 1990, with Hermiller's blessing, Alyeska hired Wackenhut Corp., a security company in South Florida, to concoct a sting to nab Hamel and identify his whistleblowers. Operatives from Wackenhut set up a phony environmental law firm and attempted to get Hamel to use it to pursue public interest lawsuits against Alyeska and Exxon. They stole Hamel's trash, bugged an office he used and hired a beautiful blonde to pretend she was an environmentalist in order to get Hamel to talk. But the scheme collapsed when one of the Wackenhut operatives came to believe that it was Hamel who was honorable, not Alyeska, and switched sides, bringing several of the Wackenhut spies with him. Hermiller retired in the wake of subsequent investigations and Congressional hearings and was eventually replaced by a new BP official who vowed to clean up Alyeska's corporate culture. Hamel successfully sued and used some of his damage award to continue his watchdog pursuit of the industry. Hamel, now 79 and retired in Washington state, is still contacted by whistleblowers, mostly on BP matters, he says.