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...BP?s safety record is also under fire. U.S. regulators are investigating BP's Texas operations, following a 2005 explosion at a refinery in Texas City that killed 15 people and injured more than 170. BP agreed to pay a $21.4 million fine in a partial settlement with Federal regulators. And in April, the U.S. Labor Department fined BP $2.4 million for safety violations at another refinery in Ohio; in a sharp rebuke, a U.S. Labor Department official stated that BP had ?failed to learn from the lessons of Texas City.? BP is contesting that fine, but in the wake...
...Which brings us to the latest black eye: charges that a BP unit manipulated propane prices in February 2004 to drive up prices and score a quick $20 million profit. According to a lawsuit filed in a Chicago federal court by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, BP traders tried to corner the market for propane ?with the knowledge, advice and consent of senior management.? This wasn?t the first time BP has been accused of price fixing. In 2003, the company paid a $2.5 million penalty to the New York Mercantile Exchange to settle charges of improper crude...
...never a good time, of course, to be accused of price-fixing. But BP can especially not afford it now. Every month of record gas prices brings more pressure on Congress to impose a windfall tax on oil companies. BP?s chief executive, Lord John Browne, made a relatively modest $8.24 million last year, but his counterpart at Exxon-Mobil, Lee Raymond, retired with a package worth an astonishing $400 million - adding more fuel to the fire over CEO pay and calls for oil industry profits to be reined in. While BP isn?t lobbying for drilling in the Arctic...
...time to point the finger at BP and call its environmentally conscious image campaign a greenwash? If nothing else, the company?s mishaps or missteps suggest that its activities merit more scrutiny from consumers and regulators alike. While hard to quantify, BP may well be reaping untold sales as a result of its green image, as consumers choose its gas over Exxon?s, whose image is still tainted by the Valdez disaster...
...also worth putting BP?s transgressions, alleged or otherwise, in context. No other integrated oil company - certainly none with $285 billion in sales - has made a bigger commitment to alternative energy, cutting greenhouse gases and educating the public about conservation. Compared to Exxon, which still doesn?t support regulation of greenhouse gases, BP deserves high marks...