BP has an army of spin doctors working on muting the outrage about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but you wouldn’t know it listening to Tony Hayward’s congressional testimony today.
Hayward keeps reiterating his carefully crafted PR talking points, but he’s not answering lawmakers’ questions.
Hayward insisted that he’s had a “laser focus” on safety since he became CEO three years ago.
We’ve engaged in a systematic change at BP. I’m not saying there isn’t more to do. We’ve made safe, reliable operations the core of the company. We have focused like a laser on safe and reliable operations. Every day.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-MI, then asked what changes had been made since April 20.
“As we learn more about what happened here we will continue to make changes,” Hayward said.
Hayward continued to review what BP had done and vowed to continue to make changes, but he refused to provide his own assessment of what went wrong aboard the Deepwater Horizon. He said he wasn’t involved in specific drilling decisions, even though he has since reviewed the documents. Asked to draw his conclusions based on the information already available, Hayward responded: “I haven’t drawn a conclusion.”
An exasperated Henry Waxman, D-Calif., shot back: “You’re not taking responsibility. You’re kicking this can down the road.”
We are almost two months into this crisis and the guy in charge hasn’t drawn a conclusion? As CEO, he should have made that conclusion within days.
In his opening remarks, Hayward said “none of us yet knows why it happened.” But we do. We don’t know all the details, like why the blowout preventers were compromised, but Hayward’s testimony shows that the same problems that have perpetuated disaster after disaster at BP continue. Much may have changed, but it hasn’t been enough.
Hayward’s laser beam needs stronger batteries.
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