You play in dirt, you get dirty.

The classic “It wasn’t our fault” denial is growing thin for BP. Author Anna Lappe asks you to take a walk down memory lane and in her new book talks about corporate greenwashing designed to inoculate against public outrage. She wrote:

BP's rebranding has been so effective that the company's rep has been relatively untarnished despite incidents that should have bruised its reputation. One was an explosion at BP's Texas City refinery in March 2005. The explosions killed fifteen people and the company was fined $21 million for safety violations -- a record high -- by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration; safety violations that were connected to company budget cuts. And in March 2006, a BP pipeline leak dumped 267,000 gallons of oil into Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. Caused by failing equipment that environmental advocates had earlier red-flagged for a fix, the leak went undetected by the company for days. Despite those warnings, BP execs responded that they "had no reason to expect" the pipe to bust a leak.

These two incidents were no "accidents;" they were caused by negligence, negligence that cost fifteen people their lives, injured another 150, and caused untold damage in that Bay. These two incidents alone should have seriously damaged BP's reputation, but they didn't?

And why? Apparently, the insiders says the environmental community cut BP slack because of their investment to be seen as “the good guys.” Read the post on Grist HERE. And check the culture jamming subvert from the London Rising Tide.

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