On the Frontline/ProPublica Oil Spill Documentary

I just finished watching the Frontline/ProPublica documentary on BP. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s definitely worth your time. The documentary tracks BP’s spotty safety record, from a 2005 explosion at one of its oil refineries in Texas that killed four people to pipeline spills in Alaska to the Gulf oil spill.

Much of the documentary focuses on BP’s corporate culture, which appears to have privileged profit and massive growth over safety. “This is a story about ambition and its consequences,” the documentary says.

One of the things that stuck out to me most about the documentary is a comment by White House climate and energy policy adviser Carol Browner. Browner, in an interview with Frontline, said that BP’s shoddy safety record was not taken into consideration in the Obama administration’s decision to expand offshore drilling. Frontline points out that the decision affected BP more than any other oil company, as it holds the most leases in the Gulf of Mexico.