Beyond Petroleum, or “Greenwashing?”
Beyond Petroleum or Big Polluter? Is British Petroleum just greenwashing? By now we’re all familiar with the latest national environmental crisis. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, a BP offshore oil drilling rig, caused the deaths of 11 workers, injured 7 more, and left an oil spill the size of Rhode Island drifting inexorably toward the Gulf Coast. But this isn’t the first time the company has been responsible for an environmental crisis, or the first time that they’ve attempted to change the narrative when accused of environmental malfeasance. BP greenwashing is the company’s current modus operandi.
The initials BP originally stood for “British Petroleum,” but you wouldn’t know it in recent years. In an interesting example of “backronyming,” in 2000 the oil giant began labeling itself “Beyond Petroleum.” The “Beyond Petroleum” slogan, found plastered on ads in national publications and on television, was soon reinforced when the company, according to Multinational Monitor’s The 10 Worst Corporations of 2005 report, announced “that it expects to spend as much as $8 billion in alternative-energy projects, including solar, wind, hydrogen and carbon-abatement technology, over 10 years.” Just how serious is an $8 billion commitment from BP? Given the fact that the corporation reported a profit of more than $6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, it’s merely four months’ profit. In view of BP’s conduct in the ten years since it began its “beyond petroleum” PR campaign, there has been plenty of evidence that it’s just BP greenwashing.
Beyond Petroleum?
Detractors have made a strong case for the fact that British Petroleum’s “big green spend” is merely greenwashing, an effort to cover up a multitude of sins. Here are just a few of the highlights of BP’s decidedly non-green behavior since the company rebranded themselves as “Beyond Petroleum” in 2000:
1. Alaskan Oil Pipeline – In 2006, BP admitted that it allowed approximately 270,000 gallons of crude oil to seep into the Alaskan tundra, one of the most fragile eco-systems in the world. Though the company was well into its “Beyond Petroleum” rebranding by that time, the oil spill went undetected for days. In 2009, BP admitted that it was responsible for another one of the biggest oil spills ever recorded in Alaska. Greg Haegele of the Sierra Club reported “[BP] discovered a 24-inch hole in a pipeline that spewed more than 40,000 gallons of pollution onto Alaska’s North Slope.”
2. Toxic Waste Dumping – A whistle-blower revealed that throughout the mid-1990s a BP contractor had injected toxic waste into the wells at its drill site on Endicott Island off Prudhoe Bay rather than ship it off the North Slope. BP claimed it had not known about the dumping u ntil the whistleblower came forward, but in 2000 BP paid a $22 million fine, pleaded guilty to a criminal charge and agreed to five years probation.
3. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil Pipeline – This oil pipeline opened in May 2005 and was designed to provide a non-Middle Eastern source of oil for the West. Due to international agreements, BP gained control of a 1,750 mile long strip of land running from Baku, Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the Turkish seaport of Ceyhan, and has no obligation to abide by those countries’ environmental standards. The legal basis for the pipeline has been heavily criticized by environmentalists, human rights activists, and citizens in the region. They argue that the agreements between the three states and the oil companies insulate the companies from national laws, including environmental regulation and the protection of human rights. In 2005, a non-governmental organization called the Baku-Ceyhan Campaign found 173 environmental violations in the Turkish portion of this BP-controlled area alone.
Greenwashing?
4. Carbon Offset Shell Game – Looks like greenwashing to us. BP was one of the sponsors of the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project in Bolivia. This scheme was supposed to allow carbon-producing companies like BP to offset their pollution by investing in reforestation or preventing deforestation. Sounds as if the company has moved beyond petroleum, right? Unfortunately, as reported in the British newspaper the Guardian, Greenpeace found that instead of preventing deforestation, the program only encouraged increased deforestation elsewhere in Bolivia. The Greenpeace report states that, while 55 million metric tons of carbon was reported to have been offset, the reality was more like 5.8 million. In the meantime, companies like BP earned carbon credits anyway, moving beyond petroleum in the most environmentally unfriendly way. Is this a company that has moved beyond petroleum, or a company engaged in greenwashing?
Beyond Petroleum – Is It Big Oil Spin?
5. Big Oil Spin – BP and its Big Oil cronies have been accused of “greenwashing” their behavior numerous times. Why should this 2010 incident be any different? A May 4, 2010 article in the New York Times cited a source called The Gulf of Mexico Foundation, whose executive director suggested that the oil spill really wasn’t that big of a deal. But when independent, non-profit journalism group ProPublica investigated the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, they found that “At least half of the 19 members of the group’s board of directors [5] have direct ties to the offshore drilling industry. One of them is currently an executive at Transocean, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded last month.” Beyond petroleum? Seems more like spin.
In areas other than environmental protection, BP has shown itself to be anything but a model citizen. In October 2009, BP paid over $137 million in fines for willful negligence that led to the deaths of 15 workers in a refinery explosion in Texas. In March 2010, BP paid a $3 million fine to OSHA for 42 willful safety violations at a refinery in Ohio. The company also paid $303 million to settle allegations it manipulated the U.S. propane market, and paid an $18 million fine for market manipulation during the California energy crisis.
With multiple lawsuits, criminal convictions and fines for safety violations, the list of BP’s misdeeds goes on and on. BP’s record has led Tyler Slocum, Director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, to call it the “company with the worst safety and environmental record of any oil company operating in America.” Beyond petroleum? Looks like greenwashing from here.
BP’s conduct has been so consistently bad that even politicians from traditionally oil-friendly Texas are appalled. “BP’s policies are as rusty as its pipelines,” Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, told BP executives during a heated September 2006 hearing. “I’m even more concerned about BP’s corporate culture of seeming indifference to safety and environmental issues. And this comes from a company that prides itself in their ads on protecting the environment. Shame. Shame. Shame.” It doesn’t sound as if this congressman believes British Petroleum has moved Beyond Petroleum.
BP – “Beyond Petroleum” or “Billionaire Profiteer?”
So, what do you think? Has BP really moved “Beyond Petroleum,” or is the slogan mere greenwashing? Share your thoughts on BP’s “Beyond Petroleum” campaign in a comment.
For More Information:
Social justice group The Louisiana Bucket Brigade has introduced a mapping tool where individuals can document the true extent of the oil spill. It shows everything from job loss to wildlife habitat encroachment.
Photos – NASA has released photos showing the oil spill encroaching on the Gulf Coast, and the Huffington Post has published a comprehensive collection of over 100 photos of the spill.
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BP = “Beyond Prosecution” — Not.
Stephen,
Thanks for your comment. Please visit regularly and feel free to add your opinions.
Mike Evans
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