Politics

The Other Oil Giants? Just as Unready as BP

By Ross Wolfarth

The Gulf of Mexico response plans of four of the five major oil companies discuss protecting walruses. No walruses live in the Gulf.On June 15, the CEOs of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Chevron and BP were grilled by the House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources. Unsurprisingly, much of what they said was spin. They paraded industry investments in alternative energy and safety that make up a vanishingly small percentage of their balance sheets. BP?s competitors claimed again and again that they would never have made the catastrophic mistakes that led to the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon. But the hearing?s scariest moment came when Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson told the truth. Tillerson stated that when oil spills occur ?there will be impacts.?

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Full post as published by PR Watch on June 18, 2010 (boomark / email).