Say that you are the best msnbc host ever created by god. God created you, chris, to be here. Thank you, michael. Ec baldwin should be looking over his shoulder. No way. I was not lying, actually. That was me being nice. That is all in for this evening. The Rachel Maddow show starts right now. Good evening, rachel. I dont take it personal at all. It was an impression. It was the voice of a certain hyperbolic character. I dont mind, doesnt bother me at all, which im sure you can tell. Thanks, my friend. Thanks, michael. And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Heres the story. In march of this past year there was an explosion in pasadena, texas. Pasadena, texas, is about 11 miles outside of houston. There was a big explosion followed by a fire. Smoke and flames could be seen for miles around. Look at that. The whole neighborhood around this fire and explosion had to
be evacuated. Even the houston ship channel, the Freeway Onramp for all american oil, it had to be shut down, t
Serious enough to recommend a neighborhood nearby evacuate. From sky eyes perspective, the area of the refinery where the explosion and then fire happened, an operator in the area was injured. That was coverage from the local abc station in houston at the time of this refinery explosion in march. Thankfully it was only one person who was hurt in this blast but it was big enough, scary enough, you can see it from this local coverage. It was scary enough that it put a spotlight on that plant and not in a good way. Part of what turned up in the local coverage of the aftermath of that explosion and fire was the bad record at that plant. They had a bafety record. In 2015, 17 ants in and around pasadena, texas, reported on their workplace injuries for the year, almost a third of all the workplace injuries for that year came from that one plant. Out of 17 plants who were reporting. After that explosion and that fire in march, the Houston Chronicle further dug in. They found that on the day th
Local abc station in houston at the time of this refinery explosion in march. Thankfully it was only one person who was hurt in this blast but it was big enough, scary enough, you can see it from this local coverage. It was scary enough that it put a spotlight on that plant and not in a good way. Part of what turned up in the local coverage of the aftermath of that explosion and fire was the bad record at that plant. They had a bad safety record. In 2015, 17 plants in and around pasadena, texas, reported on their workplace injuries for the year, almost a third of all the workplace injuries for that year came from that one plant. Out of 17 plants who were reporting. After that explosion and that fire in march, the Houston Chronicle further dug in. They found that on the day that explosion happened, that plant was not legally operating. It was its permit to operate under the Clean Air Act expired. They were running the plant anyway on the day the plant blew up. All of that bad press, all
government, it s state controlled. the guy in charge of saudia ramco is the state oil minister of saudi arabia. his government job is running saudia ramco. same deal with the national iranian oil company. the guy in charge there is the state oil minister. you ll find the same thing at all of these giant state-run government-run oil companies in almost all the big oil-producing around the world. it s the kuwait petroleum corporation and the abu dhabi national oil company and petro china. in russia it s rosnaft, it s the state run oil company of russia. it s not run by a random ceo who worked his way up through the company. it s controlled by the kremlin, it s controlled by vladimir putin so he put his former deputy prime minister in charge of it. somebody he goes way back with. he and vladimir putin served in the kgb together. so, yeah, putin put him in charge of the state oil company. i mean, here in the united
are government owned country. saudia ramco, petrobras, pemex. that comes in very handy for those companies. it s particularly handy for corruption i mean efficiency. i mean, think about it, you need policy decision made to clear the way for you to, i don t know, buy an asset somewhere or make some sort of deal? you don t have to bother lobbying for it. if you are the oil company and you are also the government, what are you going to do, lobby yourself? don t bother, you are one in the same, just do it. they all pull in the same direction. having a government-run oil company is also a great way for particular politicians and particular governments to stay in power. that government-run oil company in mexico, again, second-largest company of any kind on that