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June 10th, 2010
12:00 PM ET
Tony Hayward's rise from geologist to BP CEO
(CNN) – For millions of residents along the Gulf Coast, anger and frustration over the oil spill is centered on BP and its CEO Tony Hayward. But just who is BP's top guy? Our Christine Romans reports.
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To those saying to look in the mirror to see who to blame – NO! There are millions of Americans who called for an energy efficient future back in 1980. We wanted mass transportation, energy efficient buildings and better cars. But no, the libertarians and republicans said the market rules. The brought on Ronald Reagan who killed the energy efficiency push. That is who to blame. The people who supported and voted for Ronald Reagan.
They are in full damage control mode and firing anyone would be an admission they are at fault. I can bet the only wish they have now is that there were no survivors or it did not happen. It would not surprise me for them to come out with a very bad tape of Osama admitting the accident was no accident and taking credit. If they could sell this as an act of terrorism they might not have to pay.
Declare marshal law, make some supertankers go out there to suck up oil like they did near Saudi Arabia, like the former CEO of Shell Oil said.
Leave BP and government agencies to work on best way to plug the leak, and put restraining order on Pres Obama to make stupid and political statements that don't help the situation....
Have the restraining order last as long as the 6 month drill freeze.
Britains leaders need to be more vocal to defend BP and muzzle Obama.
Munch – what is yr definition of a foreign company? Bp is 40% owned by Americans. It employs more Americans than Brits. It is no more foreign than than exxon chevron or ford. Go to an international business class!
And, by the way, the USA doesn't seem to need to import terrorists either. Plenty home grown it would appear!
Why blame BP for the incident? The Captain of the Deepwater Horizon, a Transocean employee, was in a position to enforce safety protocols in the days up to and including 4/20/10.
This indeed is the worst man made ecological catastrophe in the "HISTORY of our SPECIES" not the worst in the U.S.,making Chernobyl and Kuwait look like a walk in the park..It will take at least a half to a century for the greater part of the planet to recover.One must realize that most of the moisture that wets the N.A.continent west of the Rockies comes from the G.of Mexico,and the oil spewed in it will be disseminated as an aerosol throughout North America as a carcinogen to more than three hundred million people, among other dire consequences nobody has yet thought of or dared mention.And then,what happens when the'gulf stream' is contaminated?And by the way,i wonder how many shares of B.P a certain billionnaire mayor of a large american metropolis owns to dare defend B.P.? I have a theory that that criminal enterprise does not want to stop the flow:B.P.is more and more vulnerable to a takeover as lower their shares are but as long as the leak persists no company will want to possess a entity that is responsible for the ongoing catastrophy and the billions in damages,the responsabiity of which they would be purchasing.In the meantime,B.P.is bying time to move as much of their liquid funds(and liquidity potential) offshore and will then file for bankcruptcy.Aside from Elisabeth the Second who must keep silent,you can bet your bottom dollar that anyone preaching restraint towards B.P is an important shareholder,and tainted with criminality.As Begala said:"i know that B.P. are lying because" THEIR LIPS MOVE".G.Wexler
BP has only increased the Blood Pressure of the ecosystem and the human system.What did BP think " to make oil available to the US community on the beaches instead of gas stations ?" So no need to drive to gas stations instead collect oil on the beach?.
Tony Hayward will you pls. answer me if this was your plan
Advise to NASA- send this Tony to Mars or rather Pluto i say
@Amazing: The only thing you have done with your statements is expose the fact that you are an ignorant bigot and really know nothing about this problem (or any problem) for that matter.
Denial? We have been drilling offshore for decades. Much of the work is done by US companies and we have been using that oil for a long time.
Focus on the real problems at hand – drilling is a dangerous industry and needed much better oversight than was provided by the Minerals Management Service. That lack of oversight was the catalyst for the problem we are seeing today.
Do we need to wean ourselves off of our dependency on fossil fuels and start to utilize renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, and hydro? Absolutely. However, we need to accept the fact that these sources are not a replacement for oil and coal, but simply a way to reduce our dependence on such. Do we need to reinvigorate our use of nuclear power? By all means – it will give us the much needed grid of power that we are depending on.
@Amazing, you would serve yourself well by spending less time at your KKK meetings and a little more time doing something radical, such as reading a book.
Why blame the CEO? This may seem like an inconvenient truth, but we the people are addicted to using obscene amounts of oil. Of course, BP royally messed up and frankly deserves what it gets. However, the company will probably recover and continue business as usual until people push the lawmakers in the country to adopt alternative fuels into the mainstream. That or use public transportation once in a while instead of that gas guzzling, air polluting SUV.
You can have all the safety procedures written and in place. But, if management want to cut corners and don't want to used the procedures and keep them updated, It will never work. I think head should roll. The have prove they are willing to hide things. Back in 2005 when the plant caught on fire and killed 15 . All BP did was pay the fines and didn't do anything to correct the OSHA or their own audit team found. I think it is a shame, It all comes from the upper level of management.
As humans we are hyenous that we destroy all that is precious for money and power. As for me I try to do my part to conserve and do not want to be catagorized with the guzzlers of the world. It all starts with bad politicians and other organizations who allow bad permits ect. to wealthy corporations which in turn take short cuts to safety. Lets not forget the coal mine explosion not so long ago, this one has the same MO as the oil rigg disaster. I believe our President wants to do all he can for the families of victims and preservation for our shores, but you cannot address all the underbelly deals until they come to light, sad to say this will not be the last of it's kind.
Johnny Jackson,
Your post shows that you do not understand the technical difficulties associated with stopping the flow. The total depth of this well is over 18,000 feet. That's a drilled depth of ~13,000 feet. You can't just "drive" a pipe down that far. The temperatures and pressures that deep are likely more than you can imagine. Also, unless you truly understand phase behavior, supercritical flow, and hydrate formation curves, you can't possibly understand how uninformed your idea is. They have some of the best oil and gas process, mechanical, and subsea engineers in the world working on this. They had something like 7 layers of protection to prevent this incident fail. The likelihood of that happening has to be about 1,000,000 to 1. These folks are doing the best they can to fix this mess as fast as possible.
I think the american govt needs to seize bp's assets, and i mean NOW!! until all the dust settles. bp's top dogs are planning a bankrupcy for their corporation that will leave the american taxpayers to pick up the tab!! MARK MY WORDS this is going to happen, they are crooks shysters and liars. Tony Hayward you are a piece of cr$p.
BP has a stock pile of money from their cash grab a couple years ago. The government should simply step in and take it. They don't want to pay up and are unwilling to be fair. Besides, they took millions of Americans for their hard-earned dollars back then, so why should we feel so ashamed to take it back and use it to clean up the mess that they are so unwilling to do? I will never fill up at a BP as long as I live...even if it means running out of gas and walking another mile to another station.
I'm more interested in an article about the fall of Tony Hayward. How are we supposed to enforce corporate ethics with respect to the environment if we don't hold people like Hayward responsible for the actions of the company they lead? There is no justification for Hayward to downplay the disaster. If you aspire to be a leader, you must also accept responsibility for the mistakes you make.
I say make Hayward an example to show other companies who practice the same cavalier style of business towards people and the environment.
Submit your ideas to CNN on how to fix the oil disaster: http://www.ireport.com/fixit.
Get involved: volunteer, or donate: http://www.cnn.com/impact.
Some time ago many people were upset that some major American ports were to be operated by a foreign corporation. Because of the uproar over our national security the deal fell through.
How is it possible to be free of our dependence on foreign oil if a foreign company is allowed to poach our shores. It is now very obvious that these arrangements with BP are much worse to our national security than terrorism. What will we sell next? Our water supply? Our grain belt? Do the American people even have a say?
Or we are still just a colony of the British empire.?
great idea for b p problems .here the plain.
here are the plains. attached are photo.
need websit to send them to.this will work
About this oil leak. If it were up to me, I would simply place a slightly larger pipe over the broken one and drill this larger pipe deep into the earth to where the smaller pipe stops. This making a new and larger pipe down to the source, that I would have a cap pre-installed or at the very least it would direct 100% of the oil to where I wanted it. .
@ MA jr.
Lets not forget, corporations have board members, the CEO. is the front man, much like Obooboo is to America.
To say my statement was stupid: May I suggest a meeting group for you.
Denial is an illness.
Do you really think that this would be happening if America didn't rely on oil for so many things?
@Armstrong, is it really, why are they in the middle of the gulf drilling in the first place?
If we didn't demand oil, they wouldn't be there. Get a grip and get real, take responsibility for your choices and life.
Denial is a powerful illness!
Why didn't CNN's John Roberts ask BP's rep that question?
Why won't anyone from BP agree to appear on AC360? I'd like to see someone from BP get a good grilling from AC himself.
@ Amazing Thats the most stupid statement ever made .
a simple joe like me can make a project plan, devise multiple paths for a fix but the BP CEO first had a ship over which couldnt suck oil fast enough THEN he calls a rig over....if i was a board chairman..i would sack him immediately..not sure what's taking them so long
CNN has done their homework on Tony and now we know more about him and still know nothing about Obooboo.
To Lynch Tony will not solve the problem. Im not defending BP, Heavens no. Yet, when it all comes out in the end, it is then we can start the lynch mob mentality. Right now everyone is just pointing fingers and looking for something tangible to blame.
When the actual blame is right there in front of everyone, in the mirror. No it's not Obooboo's fault, no its not Bush's fault, it's your fault as much as it is my own fault..
My sincere apologies if this upsets any of you, sometimes the cold hard truth hurts.
Doug Suttles needs to take complete control of operations and Tony Hayward needs to get his affairs in order for a long prison stay .