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Subscribe to RSSIn-house corporate magazines are supposed to make the company look good, but The Wall Street Journal is asking whether Planet BP, the oil company's organ, is smoking something:
[I]n Planet BP β a BP online, in-house magazine β a "BP reporter" dispatched to Louisiana managed to paint an even rosier picture of the disaster. "There is no reason to hate BP," one local seafood entrepreneur is quoted as saying, as the region relies on the oil industry for work.
Indeed, the April 20 spill on the Deepwater Horizon is being reinvented in Planet BP as a strike of luck.
"Much of the region's [nonfishing boat] businesses β particularly the hotels β have been prospering because so many people have come here from BP and other oil emergency response teams," another report says. Indeed, one tourist official in a local town makes it clear that "BP has always been a very great partner of ours hereβ¦We have always valued the business that BP sent us."
Fortunately the articles β on which BP declined to comment β don't go as far as praising that new treat: seasonal shrimps in (crude) oil.
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What a ridiculous spin by the media on the internal BP story. Also taken out of context... We all love "dirty laundry", makes us feel better. The plastic in the devices you are all posting messages with came from oil!
As usual,Β where did you get the information that BP said this " Its a good thing".
Anyone that thinks the oil spill is bad now, wait until the relief well fails. Then there is another place for the oil to escape. They are planning to do the same thing that they already tried from the top of the pipe and it failed. Why would it succeed now, at a lower point in the pipe, it's still going to go to the bottom of the oil reservoir, completely below the bottom of the pipe. I sent them a cheap, easy solution, but it got rejected. NO, it wasn't a barbeque grill top, like some guy came up with. They already have that down there now. BP's engineers don't want to pay attention to anyone else, because they have a degree, I don't.
yes, that is the reason Murray...likely experience in the field, and making risk based decisions that affect a companies ability to survive, and impact others lives are also desirable traits.
You have any of that ? ..... do you go to mystic healers rather than educated, experienced doctors ? Do you build you own car, teach your own kids, build your own house...why not ?
John, I hope you saw my comment below.
I read today that fisherman are being caught trying to sell their catch...any comments on that ? I call that double dipping myself.
What I also find interesting...is posters here, and the headlines say "BP - It's good for business"...yet I can't find that in the article...any comments on that ?? How did the media get folks to think they used that phrase ? But, they make money from controversy....hmmm.
John, I have a lot of that. I built half of the house that I used to own, I built my own tractor, which was one Bad Monster, my kids have learned a lot from me, to live in the real world and I haven't had to go to a doctor for many years. Also, I did design engineering for quite a few years, with no failures in my designs. Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to snap at you, I'm not, just saying part of where I've been. Design engineering (no degree), but got compliments from engineers that had a degree. Mine always worked, their's only worked half the time.
Degrees don't necessarily have anything to do with skill. A craftsman who graduated from the 8th grade built a staircase in my house and you cannot see the supports for it. It is a spiral made from 2X10 antique oak.
You can do a lot if you have a brain and use it. Good for you for building part of your house. I've remodeled three and I certainly don't have a degree in construction.
What most of you don't get is that all the quotes are from locals not from BP, and yes it is true one mans pain is anothers gain. Out west at this moment 1000 firefighters are fight a huge wild fire, guess what they need to eat, so some local eatery will be paid to make a pile of box lunches everyday for them, and believe me the rate for those is pretty good. At the same time, they will need things like parts for chainsaw that break, so a local guy will do months worth of business. At the end of the day, these guys willhit the town and wash all that ash and smoke away with a cold one or two. Folks that is life, it is not PR it is fact, when RI had all the floods, or Nashville, that was news, but for a lot of compaies that was like winning the lottery, they had more work than they could handle. A buddy of mine always has a laptop and cellphones with hime, the moment he hears thunder, he turns on the laptop, pulls up doplar radar and starts watching for hail, when he sees it, he call his sales guys, they are looking at your roof before the rain stops.
You're right! Most of these people read on a 5th grade level and cannot comprehend what the read and this is exactly why this country is in the shape it is today - these stupid people.
robby, just think...local carpenters will get to build new houses for the ones that are burned down but who is going to replace the family's treasures? The baby pictures and such?
The BP writer is using classic British double speak, just like some of the commenter’s above. If you were to disagree with the writer in person I am sure the writer would jump into the, “you are being too negative speech”. Which loosely translates as so what if we have created the biggest disaster your part of the world has ever seen, as long as I have a British accent I just can’t be wrong. There will be no way to fully fix this mess…ever so the amount of shame that all of BP should have is immense. Yet I still see them acting overly important and trying to point the blame elsewhere/spin it into something less than the total disaster it is. The entire mess up with this oil spill reeks of classic risk based management. Good luck gulf states you are in my prayers.
There is no positive light in this disaster, BP gambled (greed) and lost. The American people have lost but it is our insatuable thirst for oil that makes us all responsible for this disaster. Our inability to give up our gas guzzlers and imbrace a greener lifestyle. The only innocent in this matteer are the creatures who live and die in this newly soiled enviorment. Screw the beaches and the hotels the enviormental side of this is of cosmic proportions, that suffering is inmeasurable and will be felt by fishermen and our children for many many years..
They will be Chapter 11 or sold to another larger company before it's all over...short their stock!
Do you drive a car? Depend on Gasoline for transportation or your livlihood?? Then you are as guilty as BP and any other Big Oil company who cares not a wit for the vast destruction caused to the earth's environment on a daily basis. Environmental damage and damage to the lives of millions of individuals all over the world has always been associated with the oil industry.
Put your money where your mouth is and stop driving gasoline fueled vehicles or at the very least decrease your usage as much as possible. Demand clean renewable energy, and alternative powered vehicles....As long as we support the oil companies at the pump and via the autos we purchase we are all complicit in their less than honorable actions.
John-1425001 asks "who wrote this 'BP spent between $700 million to $1 billion to Google, Bing, and Yahoo to buy all the top 20 results slots for hundreds of search arguments (such as "oil spill")' you can't really believe that can you ?? Didn't you even try to check it."
I didn't write that post, but the assertion that BP has purchased the top related search terms is accurate and has been reported by numerous news sources, including ABC and Reuters. Moreover, BP execs ADMITTED PUBLICLY THAT THEY DID SO. (Refer to confirmation to ABC by BP spokesman Tony Odone)Β Which you would have discovered if YOU tried to check it before assuming it WASN'T true.
John-1425001 asks "who wrote this 'BP spent between $700 million to $1 billion to Google, Bing, and Yahoo to buy all the top 20 results slots for hundreds of search arguments (such as "oil spill")' you can't really believe that can you ?? Didn't you even try to check it."
I didn't write that post, but the assertion that BP has purchased the top related search terms is accurate and has been reported by numerous news sources, including ABC and Reuters. Moreover, BP execs ADMITTED PUBLICLY THAT THEY DID SO. (Refer to confirmation to ABC by BP spokesman Tony Odone)Β Which you would have discovered if YOU tried to check it before assuming it WASN'T true.
Correction: TOBY Odone, not Tony. Typo :(
Thank God Bush is not still in office; they-BP could have count on a subsidy to offset clean-up cost.
It's official if you ever had any doubt. These corporations are in Control of the entire planet. The repugs have spent years stacking the judgeships with corporate cronies. These kinds of decisions are what they were after. Their tactic of making Obama look bad from day one by saying no will put them back in power and it will be even worse.
Resistance IS futile.
Has anyone mentioned that a majority if not ALL of the fuel used by our military is contracted to BP?????
BP, will find this spill to be profitable, but not for the gulf area, but for themselves. Point of fact, that all oil companies profited from the Exxon Valdez spill. Oil companies DO NOT pay for these "accidents"! The consumer has, and will always pay for these companies mistakes. All oil based products went up in price, after the Prince William Sound mess. What the government needs to do is make sure they cannot raise prices to charge us for this spill. You don't really think that that 20 billion, and other payments will come from their pockets fo you! It has always been done this way, and as long as polititians are in the oil companies pockets it will always be this way.
Proof of this, is go back to when they were made to switch to unleaded fuel. They immediately raised their wholesale price of fuel by 30 cents a gallon, and then announced pubicly that that was the cost of taking the lead out of the fuel. Lead is a liquid additive folks, so they charged us, and still charge us to leave a step out of the process. I wrote several legislators at the time, and they just side stepped the issue. I wrote several letters to the editor, showing proof that the oil companies were gouging the public, and that our congressmen were allowing it, and not one letter ever got published. I was managing two stations at the time, and all they did was change the front of my pumps to say unleaded fuel instead of, lead added, and then filled my tanks by just dumping the new unleaded fuel on top of the leaded fuel. Again, lead is a liguid additive, that cannot be removed from the fuel once it is added.
So my point is that anything the oil companies do, will always be profitable for them, and expensive for the public
Exxon still owes millions for the Valdez spill.
This sort of reminds me of when Barbara Bush toured New Orleans a few days after Katrina and announced to the media that she thought "things were working out well for everyone."
It was actually Houston (the football place) but it really doesn't make any difference where she was, she looked like an ass when she did it.
1 man leaves a smoking s.u.v in times square, and we call him a threat and a terrorist, a company spills 100 million gallons of oil into our oceans, and we all accept "op's" i can hear them now in the office of bp "suckers' hahahahahah"
Where in this article is it quoted that BP says it is a good thing or good for business? The only person who states that is the author of the article. Some people need to learn how to read and then comprehend what they read. No wonder our country is in such a mess - look at the people who are posting on news articles. Idiots!
I work in the oilfield and 100% agree with BP and the local hotel and small business owners in this article. They aren't down playing the disaster. They are basically expressing the havoc it would wreck on the economy both in Louisiana and the entire country if Obama would have been successful in shutting down deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. If you can't see that you are ignorant and have no idea the impact that would have on this country
braindead here obama talks the talk he needs to walk the walk when their if s screwup of this magnitude some one or more then one is at fault. With that being said; all other truths and none truths are trivial.People at fault need to pay and not a resignation like so many of are government officials copout on.Prison time for execs to the general laborer must be inforced to the ones who are guilty.When obama or the next president walks the walk and brings this person or people to justice then and only then can we say we the people have been represented in government. itruly didnt think this disaster could get worst but i just pulled up an article about how they are burning the oil at the surface. wow really/? now a little about me . ihave worked for over 50 large companies like exxon,basf,colgate, american sythetic,borden chemicals,general electric,frito lay,phillip morris,just to name a few not counting several chemical companies and have seen it all . i have seen violations after violations go unchecked for over 20 years. Iam a Pipefitter by trade .Ihave worked with and on just about every type of pipe their is . Plastic,stainless, glass, copper, titanium,brass,,powerhouse grade,nuclear grade u name it i have probably work with it. iam not very a educated man but i can tell you that in my professional opinion even with the logistics of this operation it can be stopped. i apoligize for my spelling .This is a sad day in human history. But we must act know for are children will pay .Isay bring these people to justice if you agree with me let me know .I would like to here what you have to say.
I cannot believe anyone would downplay this disaster!
BP should be ashamed of any of their affiliates saying anything like that!
payyourself. your analogies are pretty reasonable but think about them a little.
glass half full/empty.Β maybe it depends on how thirsty you are as to whether you care about the size of the glass, or maybe you have the wrong size glass to begin with.
making lemonade.Β sometimes you have to squeeze the lemons really hard just to get a few drops of lemon juice, then when you finally do you have to add a lot of sugar(coating) just to make it palatable.Β some lemons just don't work.
i don't live near the gulf or work for BP, so why don't we let them deal with the disaster first-hand. i like to think that those responsible will pay and the victims will be compensated, but that doesn't seem to happen in these times.
By the spin factory they just bought stock in the GOBP. It seems that soon to be Lord Rush is at the head of this effort to make BP the victim in this disaster. After all the working American is just the poor in these guys eyes. Just like BP said the small people.
I hate cars!!! If I didn't need one, I surely wouldn't pay all the $$$.. I don't like driving much either.. Too many crazy drivers, and the traffic! I walk/bike when I can, only drive my Corolla when necessary.. Sure wish we had a decent train system.. I'd rather take a train, than drive or fly.. Maybe in the 22nd Century, if we make it to than..
All you no good cry babies need to turn turn off your computer (made of plastic which is made from oil) park your cars (which use oil) and go to He**. I hate to brake the news but OIL MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND. Irag war, Desert Storm, and many more wars all over oil. Their is NO way to eliminate the use oil. DRILL BABY DRILL
All you no good CRYBABIES need to turn off your computer (made of pastic, whic is made from oil) park your cars (which use oil) and go to H3ll. I hate to be the one to break the news but the WORLD RUNS ON OIL, and their is no way around it. Many wars have been waged over oil and tons of lives lost. Every other industry in the world depends on oil in one way or another. You can all go to H3ll. DRILL BABY DRILL