[GreenYes] BP problems reflect energy plan (very short)

["Mark Barron" <mbarron8@hotmail.com>]

just a very short news brief.  thanks.

. THREAT TO ARCTIC REFUGE: BP admits safety problems plague Prudhoe Bay

The British oil giant BP has admitted widespread operational problems at its 
oil field at Alaska's Prudhoe Bay next to the Arctic refuge. A BP team of 
employees and consultants "found deficiencies ranging from a lack of 
maintenance on safety equipment to reports of chronic valve leaks," the Wall 
Street Journal reported. The team, which conducted its review over the 
summer after the Journal disclosed safety-valve failures and other problems 
in a front-page article, interviewed 300 BP workers and contractors. The BP 
report said workers "consider that certain critical safety systems are in 
need of urgent maintenance or significant upgrades." The Journal reported, 
"The findings underscore concerns of critics of President Bush's proposal to 
drill in the refuge that practices by the oil industry are too slipshod for 
it to be trusted to go into such a pristine wilderness area." In an 
editorial, the Anchorage Daily News wrote, "There's a pattern here that 
looks chillingly close to the inattention and neglect that preceded the 
Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989."



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