bp was having all sort of discussions about how it wasn t 5,000 barrels a day. it was more like 60,000 or maybe 140,000 barrels a day. but publicly, they kept assuring everybody that it was no big deal, only 5. the important part was not just that bp was wrong or that they didn t know the answer and they were getting. the important part in their culpability, the reason they paid the largest corporate fine in history of corporate fines was not because they got it wrong, it is because they did know the truth and they lied about it. they lied about it publicly and lied about it to congress. in the three years since the worst oil spill ever, there is a slow unfolding in the courts and the gulf of things that we, the public, did not know at the time of the spill. some of them, it turns out, the oil companies knew what the truth was and kept it from us.
years ago this week. and their full culpability for that spill is still being worked out along with the other companies that are responsible. they are currently on trial in new or lean. but the bp lying part of it, that part has been adjudicated. bp admitted in court that while they said publicly and to congress even, that their gushing well in the gulf of mexico was only leaking 5,000 barrels a day, that was it, merely a flesh wound. while they said that publicly, not only was that wrong, but they knew it was wrong. bp as a company internally was having all sorts of discussions about how it wasn t 5,000 barrels a day. it was more like 60,000 barrels or maybe even 140,000 barrels a day. but publicly, they kept assuring everybody that it was no big deal, it was only five. the important part was not just that bp was wrong or that they didn t know the answer and they were guessing. the important part in their culpability, the reason they ended up paying the largest corporate fine in the h