BP Owns The Gusher

The Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service are conducting the standard accident investigation following the loss of the Deepwater Horizon. It is the same type of process that the NTSB conducts after a plane crash, and is not primarily concerned with the oil gushing in the Gulf.

Because they are concerned with the sinking of a vessel, they are talking to the people directly involved in the incident, and not having to put up with the spin from the executives of the companies involved. That is a failing of Congress.

McClatchy reports on todays’s session: BP worker takes 5th, making prosecution a possibility

WASHINGTON — A top BP worker who was aboard the Deepwater Horizon in the hours leading up to the explosion declined to testify in front of a federal panel investigating the deadly oil rig blowout, telling the U.S Coast Guard he was invoking his constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.

The move Wednesday by BP’s Robert Kaluza raises the possibility of criminal liability in the April 20 explosion that killed 11 and five weeks later continues to spew hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day.

Wednesday’s government hearing in Louisiana, however, failed to determine why — despite unusual pressure and fluid readings on the rig — a BP official decided on the day of the explosion to proceed with removing heavy drilling fluid from the well and replacing it with lighter-weight seawater that was unable to prevent gas from surging to the surface and exploding.

BP made an incredibly stupid decision during Congressional testimony, and started pointing fingers at the other companies involved. Cops and DAs like to encourage this sort of thing as it provides them with a lot of information that there is no legal way of obtaining without the cooperation of the defendants. Even juveniles know better than to start pointing fingers, because those pointed at will respond.

We don’t know why it was done, but there is now no doubt that BP made the decision that resulted in the deaths of 11 people, the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, and millions of gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.