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High Gas Prices, and a CEO Living in High Style
Need proof that we need a cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy supply? We have it plain as day this week, when we found out that BP -- which earned over $7.3 billion last quarter, and just gave its CEO a million-dollar pay raise -- refused to cough up the dough to maintain one of America's most crucial energy lifelines.
In a blow to drivers already struggling with high gasoline prices, BP was forced to shut about 8 percent of the nation's domestic oil production for at least a period of weeks after discovering "unexpectedly severe corrosion" in its pipelines in Alaska.
Oil futures, already near record highs, shot higher on the announcement, and gasoline futures also rose.
The shutdown could be the tipping point that pushes gasoline prices to a record high, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at New Jersey-based Oil Price Information Service, noting prices are already close to record levels.
The pain for California's consumers comes as oil companies earn record profits -- again, BP earned a $7.3-billion windfall over the last three months. You would think a firm that rich could afford to spend a few dollars to maintain such a crucial pipeline.
They're playing the Russian roulette up there," said Hammel, a former oil broker who acted as a go-between for whistleblowers on BP's staff in Alaska.
He says a dozen past and current BP employees came to him claiming they'd been told to cut back on a chemical put into the system to retard rust and corrosion, and to falsify records. A federal official confirms that many of these workers have also talked to the FBI.
“They were telling me that they were not properly injecting the corrosion inhibitors into the system," says Hamel.
The oil companies need to drop their dirty politics and dirty business practices that leave us with super-high gas prices.
BP’s negligence underscores how vulnerable our oil supply is. Prop 87 would reduce our dependence on oil, and start the transition to a cleaner, cheaper, reliable, domestic fuel sources.
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