On Ruling Against BP in Gulf Oil Disaster

Antonia Juhasz, Oil and Energy Analyst and author of three books – Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill, The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry–and What We Must Do to Stop It , and The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time – joined me on the show this morning to talk about the ruling and its ramifications.

What does this have to do with money? Everything. Absolutely everything Juhasz explained to Democracy Now on Friday morning.

“The judge found that BP routinely put profit over prudence, people, safety, and the environment and the result was and remains catastrophic. Over and over again the judge ruled that BP made decisions that were ‘profit-driven’ and an ‘extreme deviation from the standard of care and a conscious disregard for known risks.”

In April, around the time of the fourth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Antoina Juhasz participated in an expedition to the site of the explosion. It was the first time since 2010 that researchers were allowed to travel to get a first hand look at the rig and well; Juhasz is documenting the expedition for a feature article for Harpers. She gave us a preview in this blog post. 

As we do most Monday mornings, I chatted with Howie Klein of Down With Tyranny and the Blue America PAC this morning. We talked about the Democrat’s biggest problem – which I see as their failure to be real Democrats. Howie wrote about it in a post called “DSCC: Dereliction of Duty.” It’s indicative in the circular firing squad in which this party is known to operate and its uncanny ability to pull defeat from the jaws of victory.

Should you care to help the progressive Senate candidates that the DSCC is ignoring, Blue America has a special senate page set up here. 

They’re also running a special fundraiser for Ted Lieu, who’s running to replace Henry Waxman. Any donation of any amount to this page will get you in the drawing for a platinum award for Fleetwood Mac’s “The Dance”. This ends Wednesday, so if you want in, act quickly.

Listen to the full interview: