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Can BP really change?
Robert Dudley, BP CEO.
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Kai Ryssdal: The new CEO at BP, Bob Dudley, hasn't actually started yet. His first official day on the job is Friday. But he's getting a jump on things. Today, he dumped a top production manager. He announced a brand new department of safety and he handpicked the person who's going to run it. It's all about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, of course, and convincing people the company's different now. That kind of makeover's no easy corporate task even when millions of barrels of oil didn't get leaked.
From North Carolina Public Radio, Janet Babin reports.
Janet Babin: BP's safety record has been a troubled one: On top of this summer's spill, there was that pipeline rupture in Alaska, and a refinery explosion in Texas. To distance itself from these incidents, BP has created a new safety unit to audit all operations.
But this priority on safety is something Gary Taylor's heard BP tout before. Taylor writes for Platt's Oilgram News.
Gary Taylor: When Tony Hayward came in as a CEO a couple of years ago -- that was in the wake of the refinery accident in Texas -- he announced that there would be a new focus on safety.
But BP says it's different this time: The new unit will have more power. If safety standards lapse, the unit doesn't have to go up the chain of command to get permission to enforce them. It's the type of bold action analysts had called for.
Matti Teittinen is an analyst with research firm IHS Herold.
Matti Teittinen: They needed to do something to show that they were shaking things up a little bit, and not just putting a new CEO in there.
But the head of BP's new unit is Mark Bly -- the company's current VP for safety. When Exxon looked to clean up its act after the Valdez spill, it brought in outsiders to do it.
Amy Myers Jaffe directs the Baker Institute Energy Forum at Rice University. She says reforming BP's culture is a tall order.
Amy Myers Jaffe: Is this something that can be done internally or is it something for which they are going to need external assistance? But definitely one has to go beyond just having an auditing structure.
Jaffe says workers will need to be rewarded for making safety a priority at the expense of time and profits.
I'm Janet Babin for Marketplace.
Having recently read the book Supercapitalism, I couldn't help but think that this is an example of what Robert Reich calls political diversion in the book. Does BP's claim of establishing and maintaining safety standards really address the need for creation or imposition of necessary standards by law?
What keeps BP from saying "but it is different this time" when it happens again? What is keeping other companies from letting their safety standards be lower?
Wouldn't the world be a better and safer place if all companies in the industry were held accountable to the same stringent safety requirements established by law?
I was shocked, stunned, and then incensed at Amy Myers Jaffe's comment about BP, that "workers will need to be rewarded for making safety a priority at the expense of time and profits." What ever happened to doing a job right for the sake of doing it right? What ever happened to doing your job right, faithfully, and competently for that reward called "the pay check"? Does everyone live by this thing I keep hearing "entitlement", work as little as you can? I honestly do not know of any job that does not have safety or profit issues involved (for non-profits, they have sustainability). I could get all preachy and suggest that people start reading "The Good Book" (of what ever faith they have), but we seem to be an action media society (need to be entertained) so I would suggest that watching the movie "The Ultimate Gift" would help a lot of people re-adjust their motives (or lack there of). Thanks for letting me get this off my chest! After all, you did ask for comments. Pat Fernald
