BP: “Safety doesn’t make money,” alleges former company official

The former official in charge of spill recovery for the AleyskaTrans-Alaska Pipeline (majority owned by BP) said BP’s emergency contingency planning was woefully inadequate when he worked for them in the 1980s. And when he reported his concerns to the head of the corporation, his life became a living hell.

James Woodle told Congress in 1991 that in 1984 he sent a letter to George Nelson, the head of Aleyeska, about his “serious doubt” that a medium or large spill could be effectively contained or cleaned due to old equipment, reduced manning and lack of personnel.

The result: he received a written warning of false rumors that he was having an affair with the terminal secretary and a few weeks later he was fired without explanation for “insubordination.”

Five years later, in 1989, the Exxon Valdez spill confirmed Woodle’s fears that Aleyeska was unprepared to handle the cleanup. Now, during the Gulf oil spill crisis, he tells NEWSWEEK that BP’s derelict attitude is “eerily familiar.”

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