Why aren't some of the folks at
Halliburton Co. going to jail?
Halliburton is an oil services
behemoth that shares responsibility for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill
that permanently damaged the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Yesterday Halliburton agreed to pay
a $200,000 fine for destroying incriminating evidence during the investigation
that followed the spill—you remember that one, criminal negligence by
Halliburton and BP dumped about 5,000,000 barrels of oil into the gulf after
their rig burned and sank, killing 11 men. It seems that on two occasions, Halliburton
managers directed engineers to "get rid of" test results that showed the
company's actions in an unfavorable light.
Not much of a penalty, I'd
say….last year Halliburton made $4,430,000,000 in profits, so the fine amounts
to about half of one-hundredth of one percent of the money the company took to
the bank in 2012. In other words, for every $22,150 of profits last year, Halliburton
paid $1 toward the penalty.
Does anyone in an executive suite
at Halliburton think this penalty is anything but a teeny weeny fine and a
great big relief? The company's stock popped up almost 5% when the market opened
today….
Here's an update on the effects of
the Deepwater oil spill:
Last January a NASA physicist reported "a dearth of marine life" within a
30-50 mile radius of the former rig site off the Louisiana coast.
Other scientists have noted that as
much as one-third of the spilled oil is still in the Gulf waters or on the
bottom, still poisoning the entire food chain.
Long-term environmental and human
health dangers could persist for generations.
"Generations" means your great-grandchildren,
and mine, could be dealing with the harmful effects of the Deepwater spill.
Why aren't some of the folks at Halliburton Co. going to jail?
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