June 8, 2010 2:04 PM

Brother of Killed Oil Rig Worker: BP Never Called

By
Bob Fuss
Topics
Domestic Issues
(Credit: Edison Chouest Offshore)

At an emotional Senate hearing, Chris Jones, whose brother Gordon was one of the 11 oil rig workers killed in the gulf blowout and explosion, said BP had not contacted the family, even to extend condolences.

Jones, who brought pictures of his brother's wife and children to the hearing, stunned senators who asked him about his contacts with BP when he told them there hadn't been any.

"They've made no phone call, no nothing to make any effort to reach out and at least extend their sympathies," Jones told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senators are considering changing maritime laws, including one from 1920 that prevents the families of the dead from collecting anything beyond lost wages and pure economic damages. Legal experts testified that victims of any industrial accident and even a car crash can sue for loss of companionship and other damages for the death of a loved one, but that right is denied to those who die on the high seas.

Another old law they are looking at limits the punitive damages BP can be subject to in lawsuits brought by fishermen and others along the gulf who suffer harm from the oil spill. That was the law that led the Supreme Court to slash payments to those hurt by the Exxon-Valdez oil spill to $500 million. An Alaska jury had initially awarded $5 billion.

Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said this was about more than fairness -- it was about preventing future accidents. He said it is no surprise that oil companies "cut corners and sacrificed safety" after the Supreme Court capped the costs they would have to pay for any misconduct.

Maritime law expert Tom Gallagan, President of Colby-Sawyer college, told senators the risk of lawsuits are a key way to insure that companies operate safely and these out of date laws create a "climate of limited liability, under-compensation and the possibility of increased risk."

Jack Coleman, an energy consultant speaking for the industry, said if there were no caps on liability that could limit drilling and stop companies from getting the oil that America needs.

Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL, angrily told him if the companies can't accept the liability for the damage they cause, they should "stay the hell out of that business."

Special Report: Disaster in the Gulf

Bob Fuss is CBS Radio News' Capitol Hill Correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.


Add a Comment See all 30 Comments
by stormerF3 June 9, 2010 7:55 AM EDT
SInce they never called I guess the Family, will not accept the Insurance check to show their distain for BP? Some how I wonder why the Family was not trying to find out as soon as they heard there was a problem on his rig?All this Emotional bed wetting for what? How about all the politicans resigning that took money from BP? Now that would be something worth the ink to print.
Reply to this comment
by alphaa10000 June 9, 2010 5:48 AM EDT
A GUSHER OF GOP MENDACITY

For perhaps 150 years, the GOP as a matter of policy canonized the importance of relaxed rules-- or no rules, at all-- for industry. This policy helped launch not only a Gilded Age of industrial "robber barons", but the GOP holy writ called "DEregulation", with high priests at the Cato Foundation (ostensibly Libertarian) and avid barkers for the policy within reach of every GOP candidate.


GOP Doctrine of DERegulation--

This GOP policy (also called "lessez faire"-- figuratively, "let alone"), helps secure massive corporate donations to the GOP year after year, because some industry does not like being reminded of the public interest and safety-- much less being required to contribute to it.

The rousing GOP chorus of "freedom from intrusive governmental regulation" is guaranteed to bring a cheer from certain players who prefer running things their way, like BP. In fact, months before the Deepwater Horizon made news, BP let it be known it does not like "intrusive and proactive" regulation.

But from the 2009 crash of a Colgan/Continental Air commuter plane in Buffalo, NY, to the Deepwater Horizon disaster off Louisiana one year later, it is clear nothing should operate in defiance of the public interest. Only a marketplace safe for consumers and the general public is a market which thrives-- whereas a den of thieves becomes a crime-ridden slum. "Caveat emptor" belongs to DEregulated Wall Street thieves and the depressed national economy they left behind.


Government Regulation--

Almost every major legislative response to industry disaster-- from Exxon Valdez to an American river so polluted it actually caught fire, was driven by an outraged American public. Far from governmental "intrusiveness", this was essential damage control and protection demanded by voters after industry abuses. BP and its mile-deep gusher is no exception.

What do we know about Deepwater Horizon regulation, at this point? Eight of the nine years of Department of Interior / MMS inspections involved the Bush administration, from 2001 to 2008. There were token citations, of course. At least twice in 2002, Deepwater Horizon management had major mistakes with safety procedures and equipment. In 2003, there was a discharge of pollution, and another equipment problem in 2007. In 2008, the Deepwater Horizon was evacuated when it began to sink after an accident with stabilizing this computer-positioned platform. Over the entire Deepwater Horizon operational life 2001-2010, "numerous" other events and problems brought 18 citations for Deepwater Horizon spills and fires as an acknowledged pollution source

Yet, there was no consistent regulatory oversight, and large gaps and discrepancies lurk in MMS data over almost the entire term. And some evidence of fraudulent inspection reports, as well. Some investigators suggest MMS inspectors actually allowed BP officials to pencil-in responses, which the MMS inspectors dutifully inked over.

All this detail did not surface since the day Deepwater Horizon exploded, but was gathered over the past year during on-going reform effort at Interior. The regulatory failures documented involve not only the Bush term of eight years, but the year under Salazar. The evidence of regulatory failure amply justifies the Salazar plan to divide MMS into separate operations for safety inspection and minerals royalty assessment.

Clearly, the past nine years is not a model case of regulation-- but is a typical case of DEregulation, and all its unfortunate consequences. The story of regulatory failures began not with Obama in 2009, but began at the launch and regulation of the Deepwater Horizon rig back in 2001.

By no small concidence, 2001 was also the year GOP DEregulation became the watchword of the new Bush administration-- the same DEregulation that spawned the massive derivatives fraud and collapse of Wall Street, 2008.

To hear anguished GOP cries for better regulation is wonderful confirmation even the party of DEregulation can realize its own, shameful history and mendacious rhetoric about proper governmental regulation.
Reply to this comment
by stormerF3 June 9, 2010 7:46 AM EDT
Whine,whine,whine is that all you bedwetters can do? The Gas and Oil industry are the most regulated industry ,except Nuclear power,and we need both to run as safe and effectively as possible. Not tobe regulated out of existense as the EPA did with the synthetic Organisms development that eat oil and reduce it to an organic state.
by Dgunner June 9, 2010 4:42 AM EDT
I worked for a small company in the early 80s as a marketing advisor for defensive automobile design.A young man was killed in a car accident while transferring aSPECIAL car to a delivery point.The ceo SHUT down the entire company paid his employees and lost thirty thousand in progress and paid for the funeral and handed the young mans wife twenty thousand cash. Nice guy you might think.Well he is in the business of saving lives and unlike thousands of other companies worldwide. He knows who makes that fortune. The people who use thier back and hands and yes sometimes give up thier life just to try to make a better life for thier familyand maybe make the world a better place. The ceo died in 95. The entire Cherokee Nation still talks about him to this day . They say he was a real man.
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by Tastes_Like_Chicken June 9, 2010 12:58 AM EDT
I would hope that BP didn't call. Show up to their home in person to extend condolences and find out what the family's needs are. Don't have the first contact be a phone call, though. That's even worse than not contacting the family at all.
Reply to this comment
by fairyswearboots June 8, 2010 11:11 PM EDT
I never hear anything about the 11 lives lost or thier familys
They were lost at sea after the explosion, it seems like they did not really look or try to retrieve thier bodies either, it must be hard for the family's to not have a body to bury...
From Louisiana proudly but sadly mourning for those who lost thier lives... RIP to 11 brave men who died
Reply to this comment
by stormerF3 June 9, 2010 7:57 AM EDT
The Media was so over whelmed by the leaking oil it forgot the 11 people who died.Never heard anything from the White House about them or their names either did you?
by curse914 June 8, 2010 8:55 PM EDT
Why would they call? The guy was a peace of talking meat to them.
Reply to this comment
by RL1957 June 8, 2010 8:05 PM EDT
You know, i dont really care if the CEO of the Company calls. But at the VERY least the head of the Division/Area that he worked under should pay their respects.
I work in a Chemical plant. We have not had a fatality, but in other Plants the protocol is the plant manager would pay their respects,make sure they family is taken care of, and at the Funeral the VP(at least) would usually show up to offer Condolences and pay their respects.
Reply to this comment
by ronaldr5-2009 June 8, 2010 7:16 PM EDT
New Upper Riser package producing an exponential oil increase? Really!! What, no anti-turbulance cavity design built into the cap? No volumetric pre-calc?

They shouldn't have spent so much money$$ on electing the Grand Poohbah. They need the bucks now to attact REAL engineers.

I guess Tony Hayward made a smooth move three weeks ago when he sold-off 1.4 million pounds of his shares in BP. What's all that about, do you think???
Reply to this comment
by curse914 June 8, 2010 8:58 PM EDT
I gotta question for you, genius. Is an infinite growth based economy possible on a finite planet?

I only ask, because you seem very intelligent.
by martin9p2 June 8, 2010 6:42 PM EDT
I have zero sympathy for BP, but you people are applying standards of conduct to fit the current situation .... do you think BP is like the US military that visits every bereaved spouse? In another situation, the story would be that suits must be capped to limit runaway costs of doing business and to limit the American tendency to litigate everything.
Reply to this comment
by erasmus111 June 8, 2010 6:14 PM EDT
"Senators are considering changing maritime laws..."


They need to stop "considering" it and just DO IT!
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