Fine-tuning
In 2005, 15 people were killed and 180 injured in an explosion at a BP plant in Texas. After t blast, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted an investigation and discovered 270 safety violations. BP was fined $21.3 million and directed to correct the violations; entering a four-year agreement to do so. BP was further fined $50 million to settle criminal charges, $1 billion dollars to correct the hazards, and $2 billion dollars in civil court cases.
At the end of the four-year period, OSHA ran a six-month inspection of the facility to see if BP had corrected the violations. Once again, BP was found to have failed and this time OSHA levied an $87 million fine. BP has 15 days to correct the remaining problems or contest the fine in court.
To keep the size of these fines in perspective, note that BP reported third-quarter profits of $4.98 billion.
Are OSHA’s fines really having an impact with profits at this level? Is it time the federal government stepped in and started filing criminally against BP? The fines may have temporarily hurt profits, but for a company that is making billions in profits a year, these relatively meager fines are not getting results.
With a world that runs on petroleum, are OSHA and governments powerless when it comes to ensuring the safety of workers at these facilities?