BP hit again: Can it ever atone for Texas City?

There’s an old saying to the effect that you aren’t paranoid if everybody really is out to get you. Managers at BP might be thinking that way as they ponder the colossal OSHA fines related to its followup from the 2005 Texas City refinery explosions. This comes after the EPA has jumped on the Whiting refinery operation and upgrades.

BP claims it has been doing a good job of implementing new safety measures since the disaster four years ago and doesn’t understand why OSHA has taken this turn. It is formally contesting the $87.4 million fine, the largest, by far, in the agency’s history. Some news services see this as symptomatic of changes in federal industry regulation. As The Guardian put it: “The fresh sanction over the accident comes amid a tougher attitude towards business from the new Democratic administration in Washington. It is a severe setback to BP’s efforts to repair its reputation in the US after a string of problems earlier in the decade, including leaking oil pipelines in Alaska and a price-fixing scandal in the propane trade.”

I am not in a position to judge whether or not BP has been doing a good job rebuilding Texas City and with its larger safety culture. If you have time on your hands, you can read a 17-page letter from BP’s attorneys to OSHA discussing the earlier findings and describing its efforts to bring things up to snuff. I suppose ultimately the question has to be what is an appropriate response to such an event. All the fines in the world won’t bring back those who died in the explosions. Nor will dismantling the corporation, jailing the managers and all stockholders, and selling the refineries for scrap. Somewhere there has to be a reasonable answer for BP and all other companies that have potentially “boomable” or toxic processes. Assuming our society has determined that the products those companies produce are needed, such plants have to be able to operate in a way that is economically viable, but with adequate protections. The ability to find someone who can define “adequate” for safety and environmental issues seems to be growing more uncertain every day.