Making a profit from environmental destruction

There's an old saying that you shouldn't kick a dying dog when it's down, but that seems to be exactly the motivation driving those as BP and their slimy allies in the corporate world. Why so bitter, you ask, well, it all goes back to the recent Gulf oil spill and how BP is handling it, or rather, how the government is allowing BP to handle it, and the underhanded politics even in this big of a mess, where corporate arrogance and stupidity define what goes and what counts as sane business. Chill out, you say, well, chew on this while you consider the ramifications of this oil spill:

The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP's internal investigation. A group of BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the project's safety record, according to the transcripts.

So as has been reported, BP is using a dispersal agent to try and break up the oil leaking in the Gulf. The dispersant that is being used, COREXIT EC9500A, is produced by the NALCO corporation. Take a wild guess as to who sits on the Board of Directors for NALCO? For those in a hurry, here's a short and sweet recap of the BoD and their major affiliations:

-J. Erik Fyrwald, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer: DuPont, Eli Lilly and Company, the Society of Chemical Industry, and the American Chemistry Council.
-Carl M. Casale: Monsanto.
-Rodney F. Chase: BP and Lehman Brothers.
-Richard B. Marchese: Georgia Gulf Corporation, Georgia Pacific, and XCEL Corporation.
-Paul J. Norris: Sealy Corporation, W.R. Grace & Company and FMC Corporation.
-Douglas A. Pertz: Culligan Water Technologies, Inc., The Mosaic Company, Compass Minerals International and Bowater Incorporated.
-Daniel S. Sanders: ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Milliken and Co., Arch Chemical* and Celanese Corporation.
-Mary M. VanDeWeghe: Lockheed Martin and J.P. Morgan.

*I always love it when a company has a clever and clear tagline for their operations, like Arch Chemical--whose tagline is "The Biocides Company". Wow, a company dedicated to killing life. How swell.)

As another example of the greenwashing business has perfected, check out the Milliken and Co. World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2010 Award from the Ethisphere Institute. Sound fish, well, it is. Check out some of the past winners for this "World's Most Ethical Companies Award" and have a laugh:

-Aflac

-American Express

-Campbell Soup

-Ford Motor Company

-General Electric

-Google

-L'Oréal

-Nike

-PepsiCo

-Starbucks

-T-Mobile USA

-UPS

-Whole Foods Market

-Xerox

And as an added bonus, guess who provides the information and investor management services for NALCO. Yup, Reuters Corporate Relations arm, that bastion of objective global news coverage and information services.

So we have BP buying a chemical surfactant that, even by the EPA materials data sheet standards, is only somewhat effective (54% by one estimate) in breaking down Louisiana Crude oil (EPA data sheet here), and which is being provided by a company who has such tight ties with the chemical and industrial world that even an environmental disaster like this one allows BP to profit, as well as their allies who sit on other corporate boards like that of NALCO.

And with minimal government oversight (The Minerals Management Service of the US gov't was at least 16 inspections behind on the Horizon rig!) and a belief that somehow corporations shouldn't be liable for their own actions, but it's better to let the feds cover the bill, this is sure to be another major debacle.

Wow, it's a great time to be a corporate raider. From Wall Street to The Gulf of Mexico, the lesson I learned is that corporate crime pays--and well!