Not satisfied with merely destroying the Gulf of Mexico, on Friday, BP reported the emission of more than 500,000 pounds of pollutants and non-pollutants in April and May at their refinery in Texas City, TX. The emissions included hundreds of thousands of pounds of deadly benzene, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.
Refinery spokesman Michael Marr said in its follow up reporting with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, BP estimated 36,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 17,000 pounds of benzene were released in the 40 days. State law requires 10 pounds or more of benzene and 200 pounds or more of nitrogen oxide during a 24-hour period must be reported through the commission’s air emissions database.
The bulk of the emissions during that time included an estimated 189,000 pounds of carbon monoxide and 61,000 pounds of propane, according to the company’s report to the TCEQ.
For the record, this is the same BP refinery where an explosion in 2005 killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others. The company was forced to pay a meager $71 million in federal fines for that incident. It’s as if the company has friends in high places, or something…
Incredibly, regulations on the local level for this type of “spill” seem to be far more stringent that at the federal level. As the Galveston Daily News notes, despite stricter state laws requiring the reporting of “10 pounds or more of benzene and 200 pounds or more of nitrogen oxide during a 24-hour period” to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the D.C. Big Oil lobby seems to have had their way at the federal level:
Had enough yet?
Alaskan blogger Jeanne “Mudflats” Devon, who called our attention to this item via Twitter, calls for the “Corporate death penalty. NOW.” in response.
While we are adamantly opposed to the regular Death Penalty — in other words, actual murder sanctioned and carried out by Big Government — if corporations are “people”, as the Supreme Court recently re-affirmed in Citizens United, then they should have to pay the ultimate price for their continuing mass murder sprees. Big Government should force them to disband, or to be broken into tiny pieces and sold off to others.
Of course, “Corporate Personhood” is a complete and utter fiction to all but the Rightwing who hide behind it to make money and avoid personal accountability, and those on the Left who are too cowardly to do a damn thing about it, since their careers are also now held hostage to the solely-profit-driven whims of unlimited corporate free speech MONEY.
Curiously absent from Think Progress article is any indication as to whether the EPA performed air sample studies in or near the BP Texas plant.
Likewise,benzene, which the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services can, long term, cause potentially fatal leukemia, is also fatal in cases of acute high level exposures.
It is not all that comforting that the information comes from the TX Commission on Environmental Quality given a recent report that the federal EPA had to step in to disallow a Texas program which permitted “thousands of mainly small to midsized Texas businesses that emit air pollutants bypass the more rigorous reviews that the EPA said the Clean Air Act requires.”
AMEN. British Petroleum has become the poster child for the stupidity of corporate personhood. What would we do with a *PERSON* who poisoned tens of thousands, put tens of thousands more out of work, and lied about it all? We would never let that *PERSON* out jail, is what we’d do. They would lose their freedom forever.
Right now, this kind of information and these kinds of opinions can be published. But, maybe not for long, with Democrats Attacking Net Neutrality:
http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/74_dems/?rc=homepage
Such information can reduce the value of corporate media stock holdings and all…
Good luck in court “We the People”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8f2c5EMHHyphrI-OoK7rjHYFkbwD9G5SFE01
It is amazing to see what BP is doing, not only to their reputation, but to the environment. Someone is going to have to crack down hard on them.
Michael Kushner
Who? Corporate eunuchs of the House? The fascist Supreme Court justices? Slap on the wrist at most. To state the obvious, Republicans and Democrats are too indebted to them, corrupt, and spineless to take them on.
Just two weeks ago…
“The ‘other’ spill BP will be keeping quiet”
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/91000
With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there’s no space in the press for British Petroleum’s most recent spill. Just last week over 100,000 gallons were lost at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred thousand used to be a lot. It still is. Last Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, busted. Thousands of barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of hydrocarbons after “procedures weren’t properly implemented” by BP operators, say state inspectors.
And of course, it is one of Alaska’s senators, Lisa Murkowski, who introduced an amendment for MORE of this BS! It is said to be voted on this week too.
Clean air Lisa vs. dirty air Lisa:
http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/07/clean-air-lisa-jackson-dirty-air-lisa-murkowski/
“The Murkowski Resolution: A Step Backward for American Clean Energy”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-p-jackson/the-murkowski-resolution_b_602793.html
The BP Whiting Indiana Plant had just as Disastrous Record. That plant dumped benzene and mercury into Lake Michigan and illegally modified their plant to emit more deadly toxins. And all under the Dick & W Regime.
And to think we hoped the Dick & W Regime of Death and Destruction was ended…
But just like many living near the Gulf of Mexico, there are those who live near this plant in TX, who will argue that JOBS are needed in the area, and that employment comes before everything else.
Oil spill clean up, Mayors in the affected areas, send out all available ships for cleanup duty, send the bill to bp.
Now that the oil is to the surface, resourcefull foreign companies , could send ships to clean it up and refine it in their countries, or ours. The rights to clean up the oil could be sold for this potential profit.
I know an inventor that has a plan for a device that could be installed to shut off the oil.