‘BP’s Culture of Greed Murdered My Parents’

by James Parks, Mar 22, 2007

Eva Rowe lost both her parents two years ago tomorrow when an explosion ripped through BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery killing 15 and injuring 170. Her parents and the other workers were members of PACE International Union, which recently merged with the Steelworkers to become the United Steelworkers (USW). Today, Rowe urged Congress to change the laws of the land so that “no other person ever has to feel the pain I felt when I was told of my parents’ death.” Saying the blast “murdered” 15 people, Rowe told a House Education and Labor Committee hearing:

The true tragedy is that the deaths were needless and avoidable. I personally believe BP with its culture of greed murdered my parents, denying my brother and me the warmth of our parents’ smile forever. The tragedy is that the accident was avoidable, witnesses said. Rather than invest in new equipment and safety training, BP had a “broken safety culture,” Carolyn Merritt, chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) told the panel.

There was a series of  “ominous” reports warning BP of safety problems at the Texas City refinery, but BP’s response was “too little, too late,” Merritt says. CSB’s investigation showed the company scrimped on safety for budgetary reasons, she says.

BP management initially tried to blame the workers for the explosion. But, in the face of evidence compiled by the CSB and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the corporation was forced to acknowledge it operated dangerous, obsolete equipment with a history of problems and malfunctioning control valves. Instead of venting flammable liquids to a flair, they were vented into the atmosphere where they overflowed and exploded—even though OSHA had warned the company years before that the equipment was dangerous and should be replaced.

But that “broken safety culture” is not limited to BP or the petroleum industry, says Merritt.

In the numerous presentations I make, invariably someone will come up to me and say “the same situation exists at my plant as well.” These situations exist everywhere.

Merritt says the key to preventing future tragedies lies with increasing the resources needed to help OSHA fully inspect the nation’s workplaces. According to an AFL-CIO analysis of the Bush administration’s fiscal 2008 budget, the White House is proposing $490.3 million in funding for OSHA compared with $472.4 million in 2006. Adjusting for inflation, the 2008 proposed OSHA budget represents a $5.1 million cut over the 2006 appropriation. As Merritt says:

OSHA simply lacks enough trained inspectors.

Click here to hear all of Merritt’s testimony and here for links to the other witnesses’ remarks.

The AFL-CIO analysis shows an erosion in federal job safety programs since the Bush administration took office in 2001. In real dollars (inflation-adjusted terms), the 2008 budget request would cut the OSHA budget by $25.4 million compared to 2001 funding levels.

The Bush administration also is proposing to totally eliminate funding for worker safety and health training and education programs. Every year since taking office, the administration has sought to slash or eliminate funding for worker training. But each year, Congress rejected these proposed cuts and maintained funding for worker safety training programs.

Kim Nibarger, a health and safety specialist with the USW, told the committee it shouldn’t take a tragedy like Texas City to bring attention to safety. He praised the CSB’s recommendation that USW develop safety standards with the American Petroleum Institute (API) for the refining and petrochemical industry.

Who knows better about the daily problems and how best to deal with them than the people who work there?

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