off texas. november 28th, 2000, an oil tanker loses power and runs aground near louisiana, which we drove through yesterday. half a million gallons of oil pouring into the mississippi. then march 23rd, 2005, one of the deadliest oil disasters in history, a massive earthshaking, window shattering explosion at a bp oil refinery in tem as city kills 15 people. bp was so egregiously neglect it levied the largest fine ever against that company. four years later that record was broken when officials fined bp another $87 million for failing to correct hundreds of safety violations at the very same texas city refinery, four years after they killed 15 of their own workers at that same plant. clearly it was time for bold political action, right? time to trot out that same tired
some of the toughest critics of b.p. in all the world are here, too, and we ve been getting an earful from them about the incidents happening over in the gulf of mexico. now, b.p. they know has had a string of safety problems, a history of safety incidents. best known, a fire at a texas city refinery back in 2005 which left 15 people dead. many more injured. that and other problems including this latest spill put down to by these critics, cost cutting at b.p., profit seeking. that has singed the engineering staffing there forcing the company to spend more on subcontractors like the operator of the rig in question right now in the gulf of mexico and those contract workers according to critics, not too well supervised by b.p. for its part, b.p. officials here in london, as you can imagine, rebutt all of this. they say they ve been rebuilding the employee ranks, the subcontractors bring expertise and more importantly they say they ve been renewing safety procedures right now as we ve been
over 5 million gallons off the coast of galveston. on august 10th, 1993, three ships collide near tampa, florida, 336,000 gallons of oil spill into tampa bay. september 28th, 2000, an oil tanker runs aground near port sulphur, half a million gallons of oil pour into the lower mississippi. all of that oil moving around with neverending opportunity for huge oopses. then one of the deadliest oil disasters in history, a massive sxlos at a bp oil refinery in texas city, kills 15 people. the government determined bp was so egregiously negligence german it levied the largest fine ever, $21.3 million against that company. four years later that record was broken when officials fined bp another $87 million for failing to correct hundreds of safety violations at the very same texas city refinery, four years after they killed 15 of their
we are watching bp to see if and when head honcho tony hayward gets kicks out of the job and the board is meeting today ahead of the earnings report tomorrow. they have to answer to a lot of nervous investors who worry he is the wrong guy to lead the company forward when it s facing so many costs related to cleaning up the oil leak. melissa francis joins me now. why not before he was yanked on the carpet in congress to be the public whipping boy for bp? you re right. in a lot of sense he s been a scapegoat. he certainly made a lot of mistakes. since he s been out in front of the cameras or not immediately after this. you have to wonder if this mess is his fault. he wasn t the ceo during a lot of the bad things that happened with bp. the big spill in prudhoe bay, the giant explosion of the texas city refinery. he wasn t in charge at the time.