Senate Committee Grills BP Safety Director: How’s That ‘Culture of Safety’ Working

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6272/help_committee_grills_bp_safety_director_hows_that_culture_of_safety_w/

Thursday July 29 11:55 am By Lindsay Beyerstein


Steve Flynn testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on July 22, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

BP's top safety officer fielded questions from a Senate subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety last week. The hearing was unusual in that there was only one witness: Dr. Stephen A. Flynn, Vice President, Health, Safety, Security, and Environment. The company had declined to participate in an earlier hearing on safety. But on July 22, over three months after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, Flynn showed up to field questions.

Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) opened the hearing with a recap of BP's dismal safety record. The fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico was hardly an isolated incident. In 2005 a fire and explosion at BP's Texas City killed 15 people. In 2009, BP incurred the largest fine in OSHA's history for failing to fix problems identified after the Texas City disaster.

Murray pointed out that four more workers have died at Texas City since the 2005 explosion. She added that there have been "countless reports" of unsafe practices at BP piplines in Alaska. She rounded out her intro with a littany of deaths, injuries, fires, and other mishaps at BP plants and in the oil and gas refining industry at large.

Flynn swore to the committee that BP was a changed company since the tragedy at Texas City. He assured the senators that, "At BP, safety is our top priority." He insisted that BP has embraced a culture of safety than emanates from the very top. Flynn extended BP's condolences to families of the 11 men who died on the Deepwater Horizon.

The platitudes seemed to frustrate Sen. Murray. She said that BP had a good record of saying the right things in the wake of a disaster, but a terrible record of acting on its resolutions.

FULL story at link.

[Omaha Steve]

1. Kick

[pruple]

2. K&R