BP Doesn't Care About Our Sound

When we talked about increased tanker traffic in the Puget Sound recently we pinned it squarely on that Stevens asshole up in Alaska, and we weren't wrong in that. We completely failed to acknowledge that the English oil company BP was pulling the strings for Senator Stevens, though. We're supposed to believe that BP doesn't stand for British Petroleum anymore - Now it's Beyond Petroleum. Whatever they're called they've greenwashed their website in shiney new colors (all done with Earth-friendly dyes no doubt) and we hear a lot about them and alternative energy technologies, but according to an article in The Independent today they're having a spot of trouble with walking the walk.

In one internal e-mail in October, a BP spokesman Bill Kidd suggested Mr Stevens might attempt to knock down the Magnuson amendment after a previous attempt failed in the House of Representatives. Mr Kidd added that he had asked a senior external public relations consultant to prepare a possible article representing the views of BP.

Mr Kidd's e-mail said: "Senator Stevens may take another run at Magnuson on the Senate floor, perhaps within days. I have asked Rick Cocker to prepare an op-ed piece for us in the event it might be useful; we will check with Stevens before launching anything proactively." Mr Cocker is the head of Cocker Fennessy, a large public relations firm in Seattle. BP would not comment yesterday.

The Magnuson Amendment limits the size of tankers moving through Puget Sound. Apparently throwing a few bones to alternative energy and putting a few friendly web games up on the site is one thing. Keeping their giant vats of poison out of our Sound is completely another.