At a first glance the 373 million USD fine agreed between British Petroleum and the US Justice Department seems like an awful lot of money but perhaps it warrants review in more detail.
First of all let us consider the charges to which BP is pleading guilty. It has admitted to artificially inflating the price of propane in the US costing consumers in excess of 50 million USD. It has admitted on one felony clean air act violation for the explosion at a Texas refinery in which 15 workers were killed and over 150 injured. It has admitted causing the largest oil spill, over 200,000 gallons of crude, on Alaska's North Slope.
These are all serious crimes and yet BP has got off with "probation", whatever the hell that means for a multinational corporation, and a fine. If we compare the fine to the company's 2006 profits of 59 billion USD the fine amounts to less than 0.5% of one years net profits! Even worse compared to the market capitalisation of about 242 billion USD the fine is only about 0.14%.
Now imagine the uproar if an American citizen, perhaps through drunken driving, caused the deaths of let us say 5 other Americans and was given probation and a fine that amounted to 0.5% of their annual salary. If we use the median American income of about 46,000 USD for a family of four that would amount to a fine of about 230 USD!
Can you hear the outrage? I certainly can. Perhaps we need to ensure that others get to see just how easily BP is getting off for their negligence, mismanagement and outright fraud.
First of all let us consider the charges to which BP is pleading guilty. It has admitted to artificially inflating the price of propane in the US costing consumers in excess of 50 million USD. It has admitted on one felony clean air act violation for the explosion at a Texas refinery in which 15 workers were killed and over 150 injured. It has admitted causing the largest oil spill, over 200,000 gallons of crude, on Alaska's North Slope.
These are all serious crimes and yet BP has got off with "probation", whatever the hell that means for a multinational corporation, and a fine. If we compare the fine to the company's 2006 profits of 59 billion USD the fine amounts to less than 0.5% of one years net profits! Even worse compared to the market capitalisation of about 242 billion USD the fine is only about 0.14%.
Now imagine the uproar if an American citizen, perhaps through drunken driving, caused the deaths of let us say 5 other Americans and was given probation and a fine that amounted to 0.5% of their annual salary. If we use the median American income of about 46,000 USD for a family of four that would amount to a fine of about 230 USD!
Can you hear the outrage? I certainly can. Perhaps we need to ensure that others get to see just how easily BP is getting off for their negligence, mismanagement and outright fraud.
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