BP
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What we need here is a little R&D
Thank God for the small people. Or at least allusions to them. BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg’s gaffe gave Barack Obama a brief reprieve from the pundit pummeling that mostly dismissed his first Oval Office speech as more slick than oil. But some columnists, Grist’s David Roberts for one, did spot a glint of promise in […]
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Republican Joe Barton to BP: ‘I apologize’ for the White House ‘shakedown’
Cross-posted from Think Progress. During a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee this morning, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) “apologize[d]” to BP CEO Tony Hayward, accusing the White House of an illegal “shakedown” of the foreign oil giant to secure a $20 billion escrow fund for Gulf Coast damages. Barton repeated the Republican attack […]
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Taking Stock of BP
As happens with stock charts, this one is likely to be out of date even before I get this post published. But here’s Google Finance’s chart comparing the stock price of British Petroleum (in red), an energy-stock index fund (in blue) and an S&P 500 index fund (in yellow). Since the oil spill in the […]
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Will Any Republicans Join Democrats in Holding BP Accountable?
Steve Benen and Greg Sargent have been making an important point lately that hasn’t yet received the attention it deserves: to the extent that Republicans intend to oppose efforts to hold BP accountable this summer and fall, they are extremely vulnerable politically. Here’s Benen first, commenting on Republican confusion over just what lengths they should […]
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BP chairman ‘cares about the small people.’ WTF?
BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg must still be learning the finer points of crisis relations — here’s his explanation (before the White House press corps) of why President Obama is so frustrated with his company: [He’s] frustrated because he cares about the small people. And we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that […]
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Daily terror: We’re learning nothing from Gulf spill
The New Republic‘s Bradford Plumer has a post today — Why our reaction to the oil spill absolutely terrifies me — that’s, well, sorta terrifying. It’s about how the body politic seems just plain unable to deal with the Gulf oil leak in any sane way: What’s especially unnerving, though, is that the recklessness that […]
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PR lessons from a 1960 oil trade group [VIDEO]
The oil drilling and oyster industries both extract things from coastal waters, so it’s no surprise they’ve been interacting for decades. Here’s a cheesy 1960 video from the American Petroleum Institute that gives a fun look into that relationship, and the industry-funded science that keeps it humming: I don’t know the full background, but Louisiana […]
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Obama’s Oval Office address on the BP oil spill
Grist gives you choice excerpts from Obama’s Oval Office address, which took place yesterday night. On the immediate crisis: Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it’s not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. […]
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BP relief ship struck by lightning, bum luck
Photo: MReece via FlickrNot even the Big Guy can saviour BP’s luck.There have been many, many striking things about the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: the carelessness of BP CEO Tony Hayward’s comments, the ridiculousness of BP’s spill-response plan, the scope and scale of the spill itself, the list of failed attempts to […]
