BP Oil Spill Topics

On April 20, 2010, the BP-operated offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico becoming the worst industrial environmental disaster in U.S. history. Democracy Now! reported from the Gulf Coast, and continues to interview experts, government officials, local residents, and environmental activists about aftermath of the disaster.

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BP Acknowledges Oil Spill Is Larger Than Previous Estimates

The British oil company BP has been forced to admit the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is far larger than the company initially said. On Thursday, BP said it’s now capturing 5,000 barrels of oil a day from the leaking pipe — the same amount it had previously said was leaking every day. BP has declined to estimate how much oil is still escaping, but scientists say BP is siphoning just a fraction of the total leak. Independent scientists...
May 21, 2010 | Story
WATCH: Live Feed of the Gulf Oil Spill

A live video feed that shows the oil gushing from the damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico is now available online. Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts pushed BP to make the video public.
Full DN! coverage of the spill is here.
May 20, 2010 | News
Fmr. EPA Investigator Scott West: US Has Told BP "It Can Do Whatever It Wants and Won't Be Held Accountable"

One month after the BP oil spill, we speak to Scott West, a former top investigator at the Environmental Protection Agency who led an investigation of BP following a major oil pipeline leak in Alaska’s North Slope that spilled 250,000 gallons of oil on the Alaskan tundra. Before West finished his investigation, the Bush Justice Department reached a settlement with BP, and the oil company agreed to pay $20 million. At the same time, BP managed...
May 20, 2010 | Story
As Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Spreads, BP, Halliburton and Transocean Executives Deflect Blame for Spill at Senate Hearings

As thousands of gallons of oil continue to spew daily from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, representatives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton were grilled by lawmakers in back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Industry executives from all three corporations began with prepared testimony that involved blaming each other for the explosion and deflecting responsibility for the unfolding environmental and economic disaster. We air excerpts...
May 12, 2010 | Story
Peter Maass on "Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil"

Author Peter Maass writes about how oil has resulted in devastation around the world in his new book, Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil. Maass spent eight years traveling the globe to discover the costs of oil production to the planet. Peter Maass is an award-winning investigative journalist and author and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. He joins us now from Boston. [includes rush transcript]
May 10, 2010 | Story
Government Exempted BP from Environmental Review

Newly released documents show government regulators exempted BP from a comprehensive environmental review of the project that resulted in the spill. The Minerals Management Service granted BP a “categorical exclusion” from a full review before approving the project just over a year ago. We speak with Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. [includes rush transcript]
May 07, 2010 | Story
History of BP Includes Role in 1953 Iran Coup After Nationalization of Oil

As tens of thousands of gallons of oil continue to spew into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP oil spill, we continue our series on BP. Sixty years ago, BP was called the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. We look at the story of the company’s role in the 1953 CIA coup against Iran’s popular progressive prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh. [includes rush transcript]
May 06, 2010 | Story
"BP: Billionaire Polluter." By Amy Goodman

The power and wealth that BP and other oil giants wield are almost without parallel in the world, and pose a threat to the lives of workers, to the environment and to our prospects for democracy.
May 05, 2010 | Columns & Articles
BP Oil Spill Highlights Poor Safety Record, the Worst of Any Oil Company in America

"BP is a London-based oil company with one of the worst safety records of any oil company operating in America," says Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen. "In just the last few years, BP has paid $485 million in fines and settlements to the US government for environmental crimes, willful neglect of worker safety rules, and penalties for manipulating energy markets." We speak with Slocum and with an attorney representing several...
May 05, 2010 | Story
BP Funnels Millions into Lobbying to Influence Regulation and Rebrand Image

We speak with Antonia Juhasz, author of The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry – And What We Must Do To Stop It. "The entire oil industry, will continue to use its vast wealth — unequaled by any global industry — to escape regulation, restriction, oversight and enforcement," Juhasz writes. "BP, now the source of the last two great deadly US oil industry explosions, has shown us that this simply...
May 05, 2010 | Story