The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

43 | Petroleum and Beyond
BRitish petRoLeuM LAunched a $200 million public-relations
campaign in 2000 to style itself as “Beyond Petroleum.” It emphasized,
however, that its safety motto was still “No accidents. No
harm to people and no damage to the environment.” 1
At BP’s refinery in Texas City, Texas, a sobering safety study was released
in January of 2005. While profits were soaring after rounds of
cost-cutting, the plant’s 2,000 workers had an “exceptional degree of
fear” that a catastrophe could occur at any moment. Corporate culture
prevented critical safety information from reaching the top levels of BP
management. “Telling the managers what they want to hear, that gets
rewarded,” a worried worker told the auditors. “For example, one person
who had cut costs, done a lot of Band-Aids with maintenance and had a
quit-your-bellyaching attitude was rewarded in the last reorganization. . . .
His replacement found that not a single pump was fit for service. . . .” 2
On March 23, 2005, workers accidentally filled a tower with 138 feet of
flammable liquid when 61⁄2 feet was the threshold of safety. “The window
on the tower that the workers might have used to spot their mistake
was so dirty that they couldn’t see how much fluid was inside, and the
gauge that was supposed to measure the height of the liquid wasn’t designed
to measure more than 10 feet. Some safety devices that should
have sounded an alarm failed—others were ignored.” 3
A cloud of gas spewed from a containment drum next to the overfilled
tower. It “sank to the ground in a clear fog, bending the air in wavy lines
like the ones that settle on the horizon on a hot day. When the gas found
a spark in an idling truck 25 feet away, it triggered an explosion so powerful
that it shattered windows of nearby homes.” Fifteen people died and
more than 180 were injured. 4
At the mandate of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, BP funded an independent
safety review. Former secretary of state James A. Baker III agreed
to head the 11-member panel, promising it would “let the chips fall where
they may.” 5
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