US safety regulators on Friday hit oil giant BP with a record US$87.4 million fine for failing to fix safety violations at its Texas City, Texas, refinery after a deadly 2005 explosion.
In announcing the fines, US Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said old and new safety violations found by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) at the nation’s third largest refinery “could lead to another catastrophe” like the 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 180.
BP filed a contest to the fine, calling OSHA’s actions disappointing as the company believed the Texas City refinery had honored a 2005 agreement with the agency to fix safety problems that led to the blast.
BP said contesting fines would send the dispute to a US administrative law judge for a ruling. BP also has an appeal pending before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent panel that reviews OSHA actions.
Of the fine, US$56.7 million was for 270 instances of failure to abate problems found in 2005. The remaining US$30.7 million was for 439 new willful violations for not following industry standards on pressure relief systems and other process safety failures, according to the agency.
BP took multiple steps to fix problems found at Texas City in the first three years after the 2005 blast, “but later their commitment waned,” said Dean McDaniel, OSHA regional administrator in Dallas.
“There are some serious systemic safety problems within the corporation, specifically within this refinery as well,” acting assistant labor secretary for OSHA Jordan Barab said. “I think that just the fact that there still are so many life-threatening problems indicates they have a systemic safety problem at this refinery.”
In 2005, BP paid a then-record US$21.3 million fine to OSHA and entered into a four-year agreement with the agency. As the agreement neared its end in September, OSHA warned the company that numerous problems remained.
Earlier this year, BP pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the explosion and paid a US$50 million fine to the US Justice Department. The company was placed on three years’ probation, a condition of which was fulfilling the agreement with OSHA.
The US attorney’s office in Houston was reviewing OSHA’s action, a spokeswoman said in a statement.
“We will take all appropriate actions to ensure the plea agreement is not violated and cannot comment further at this time,” said Angela Dodge, spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last