BP’s damaged public image was left in tatters yesterday after furious US lawmakers pilloried the energy giant’s boss, accusing him of stonewalling on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
In hostile questioning on Thursday, lawmakers tried and failed to win answers about the spill from BP chief Tony Hayward.
“I can’t pass judgment on those decisions,” he told openly disbelieving members of a key US House panel investigating the worst environmental disaster in US history. “I think it’s too early to reach conclusions.”
HOT SEAT
Just a day after BP won praise for bowing to White House demands to create a US$20 billion fund to pay spill-related compensation claims, the British company’s CEO was back in the hot seat.
Hayward said he would wait until BP finished its probe into the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, sank the rig and sent oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico’s waters.
“I wasn’t involved in any decision-making” on how to drill, test or secure the well,” said Hayward, a 28-year oil industry veteran.
Hayward’s contrite opening remarks to the panel and a vow that the British energy giant would repair the economic and environmental damage wrought on US southern shores were quickly overshadowed as he declined to reveal specifics.
Waving pictures of oiled birds, the representatives did not hide their frustration or derision in a piece of political theater before a barrage of media cameras.
Hayward, who has been dubbed the most hated man in the US, offered an olive branch at the start of the day-long hearing, apologizing for the catastrophe.
“I know that only actions and results, not mere words ultimately can give you the confidence you seek. I give my pledge as the leader of BP that we will not rest until we make this right,” he said. “We and the entire industry will learn from this terrible event and emerge stronger, smarter and safer.”
But in a sign of how high tensions are running, a protester with a blackened face and hands briefly disrupted the hearing.
‘CRIME’
“You need to be charged with a crime, Tony,” she shouted. “You need to go to jail!”
Despite a massive mobilization, millions of liters of crude are fouling the shorelines of four US states, closing down vital fishing waters and hitting the region’s lucrative tourist industry.
US experts believe between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels is spewing into the Gulf every day.
Hayward told lawmakers BP is now siphoning up an average of 20,000 barrels a day of oil to two processing ships on the surface.
The US disaster coordinator, Admiral Thad Allen, said that by early next week the company hoped to be containing 105,980 liters — some of which will be burnt off by one of the surface ships.
In some good news, Allen said drilling on a relief well, seen as the only way of permanently capping the spill, was ahead of schedule.
“Mid-August was the target date. They’re actually ahead of schedule right now, but I’m not going to guarantee it will be earlier,” Allen said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese