BP, Spilt Oil, and one more reason to bike to work

Steven Mufson reported today in the Washington Post that in a special House sub-committee investigating the Alaska pipeline failings,

The top executives of BP's North American and Alaskan operations faced grilling under oath about why they had failed to prevent a leak, found in March, that spilled 210,000 gallons of crude oil on the northern Alaska tundra.

Specifically,

The subcommittee called Richard C. Woollam, the former manager for corrosion, inspection and chemicals for BP Exploration Alaska, to testify, but Woollam said, "Based upon the advice of counsel, I respectfully will not answer questions." Although it wasn't clear why Woollam invoked the Fifth Amendment, one possible reason is that a federal criminal investigation is underway about BP's oil spill and that he was involved in the design of the company's anti-corrosion program.

In other words, he is afraid he will be hauled up on charges and if he answered the question honestly he could convict himself. BP immediately tried to distance themselves, but only made it worse.

BP Alaska's president, Steve Marshall, said that Woollam had been transferred out of Alaska after a 2004 investigation by an outside law firm cited Woollam for intimidating workers who had raised safety issues. Marshall said the law firm ... "found evidence of intimidating behavior that had made some corrosion workers reluctant to raise health and safety concerns." Woollam, now based in BP's Houston office, no longer has a supervisory role, and Marshall said yesterday that Woollam was on paid leave. [my emphasis]

In other words, they do pay people for this.

Well, actually you and I pay people to do this, every time we fill up our tank.