Timeline of the G.O.P. / B.P. Megaspill
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1991 Jan: Persian Gulf War Oil Spill deemed 'third-largest ever' at six million barrels.
2001 Feb 22 thru April 17: Executives of Enron Corp., Exxon-Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil, British Petroleum, Massey Energy and other oil, coal & gas corporations met over 40 times with Dick Cheney's secret Energy Task Force. One result was that offshore drillers were exempted from installing 'remote shutoff systems' hardware – the half-million-dollar cost per well was described as 'too costly'.
2001 April 4: Cheney's Energy Task Force met only once with representatives of 13 environ-mental groups, including Friends of The Earth and the U.S. Public Interest Group. The Energy Task Force report had already been drafted, and the meeting included no substantive exchange of ideas.
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2005 March 23: Explosion at B.P. America's giant refinery in Texas City, Texas that killed 15 workers and injured 180 employees. { news story 2 July 2010 }
2005 May: An appeals court ruling permitted records of Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings to remain secret, preventing disclosure under F.O.I.A. to plaintiffs Judicial Watch and Sierra Club.
2005 Nov: CEOs of Exxon-Mobil, ConocoPhillips & British Petroleum lied to a U.S. Senate committee about participation in the Energy Task Force.
2005 Nov 15: The Washington Post newspaper printed a report on documents detailing meetings between executives of Exxon-Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil, and B.P. America with the Energy Task Force – effectively proving that those execs committed crimes per the U.S. Fraud and False Statements Statute (18 U.S.C. 1001).
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2007 July 18: The Washington Post newspaper reported the names of those involved in the Energy Task Force, detailing at least 40 meetings with energy execs; among those in the meetings were James J. Rouse, then VP at ExxonMobil; Kenneth L. Lay, then head of Enron Corp. {later convicted on ten counts of fraud); Jack N. Gerard, then with the National Mining Association; Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute; and Eli Bebout, Wyoming State Senator and owner of an oil drilling company.
2008 July: All-time high average U.S. gasoline pump price of $4.11 per gallon.
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2009 Oct 31: O.S.H.A. fined B.P.'s Texas City refinery $87 million for policies & workplace safety violations that caused the lethal explosions in March 2005 (which killed 15 and injured 180 employees).
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2010 Feb: The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform, on lease by B.P. America from Transocean, Ltd., began drilling the Macondo well off the coast of Louisiana.
2010 Feb 13: B.P. America reported to U.S. Minerals Management Service that cracks leaking natural gas and drilling mud around the Macondo well had taken ten days to fill with cement {per Bloomberg News, June 17}.
2010 April 6: Toxic gas spill from B.P. America's giant refinery in Texas City, Texas during repairs; the problem was not discovered until two weeks later; the release spewed 538,000 pounds of chemical pollutants into the atmosphere during the forty day duration.
{ news story 2 July 2010 }
2010 April 19: Halliburton/Dresser Industries screwed up installation of a concrete plug (capping the well) where the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform attached to the seabottom in the Gulf of Mexico – just twenty hours before the explosion that set off the worst oil spill in history.
2010 April 20: Oil platform Deepwater Horizon exploded and began burning, creating a massive oil spill off the coast of Louisiana & Mississippi, termed the BP Oil Spill Disaster. Eleven workers were killed, and 17 workers were injured.
2010 April 22: Oil platform Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank off the coast of Louisiana.
2010 April 23: Original B.P. America estimate of oil leakage at 1,000 barrels per day.
2010 April 23: Original government estimate of oil leakage at 5,000 barrels per day.
2010 May: Oil drilling contractor Transocean, Ltd. planned ahead for the B.P. Megaspill Disaster by insuring the oil platform that they leased to B.P. America for much more than it was worth; after the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank, Transocean, Ltd. pocketed a profit of $270 million.
2010 May 2: President Obama visited the gulf disaster scene.
2010 May 11: In testimony before Congress, B.P. America execs blamed contractor Transocean, Ltd. for the disaster, then Transocean execs blamed subcontractor Halliburton, who then said that they were just fulfilling the job specifications given to them by B.P. America.
2010 May 14: President Obama described finger-pointing testimony as 'a ridiculous spectacle'.
2010 May 15: End of the 40-day-long toxic gas spill from B.P. America's giant refinery in Texas City, Texas.
2010 May 20: B.P. America finally made high-definition video available of the gushing oil.
2010 May 22: President Obama announced an executive order establishing the bipartisan National Commission On The B.P. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The co-chairmen are ex-E.P.A. head William Reilly and Bob Graham, former Governor of Florida (1979-87) and U.S. Senator (1987-2005).
2010 May 26: G.O.P. / B.P. Megaspill Disaster entered its sixth week, with petroleum companies attempting a 'top kill' procedure (never before tried underwater).
2010 May 27: Petroleum engineers reported finding a second plume of eco-toxic petroleum from the Deepwater Horizon drilling site; the plume is as deep as 3,000 feet and six miles wide, and heading toward Mobile Bay (the first major plume is headed toward the open sea).
2010 May 27: Revised government estimate of oil leakage at 12,000-19,000 barrels per day.
May 29: B.P. America announced failure of the 'top kill' procedure.
2010 June 4: President Obama's second visit to the disaster scene.
2010 June 14: Prior to B.P. CEO Tony Hayward's schedulked testimony before the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Henry A. Waxman and Bart Stupak sent a 14-page letter to Hayward, asking detailed questions about the oil spill.
2010 June 15: Revised government estimate of oil leakage now at 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) per day.
2010 June 17: B.P. CEO Tony Hayward testified before the House Energy & Commerce Committee.
2010 July 16: B.P. America COO Doug Settles announced (with video) that the Macondo well leak is stopped; hope is tentative, as all are uncertain that the newly-installed cap will hold.
2010 July 26: British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward fired/resigned effective October 1st, to be replaced by American Robert Dudley.
2010 Aug 4: B.P. America & the White House each announced that the mud-packing procedure is working, and that the Macondo well is now stable.
2010 Aug 12: U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced that B.P. Plc will pay a record $50.6 million fine for lingering safety problems connected with the 2005 explosion at their Texas City, Texas refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 180. B.P. will also spend $500 million between 2010 and 2016 to improve safety at the facility; they have already paid a $50 million fine to settle the criminal charges and also spent more than $2.1 billion to settle hundreds of lawsuits stemming from the explosion.
2010 Sept 18: B.P. poured cement into the ocean floor wellhead and declared that the Macondo well is permanently sealed.
2010 Sept 30: The E.P.A. and the Justice Dept. fined B.P. $15 million for violations of the Clean Air Act that caused the explosions at its Texas City refinery in March 2005 (which killed 15 and injured 180 employees).
2010 Nov: B.P. announced that the total spent on the Gulf cleanup was $40 billion AND that B.P.'s third-quarter profits were $1.8 billion.
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2011 Jan 11: Release of the White House Oil Spill Commission's final report {see below}, which included the statement "Drilling offshore is a privilege to be earned, not a right to be exercised by private corporations."
2011 Dec 5: B.P. revealed that Halliburton destroyed the damaging test results that showed that Halliburton's cement for the Macondo well was unstable.
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