With the Gulf Coast dying of oil poisoning, there's no space in the press for British Petroleum's latest spill, just this week:
over 100,000 gallons, at its Alaska pipeline operation. A hundred
thousand used to be a lot. Still is.

On Tuesday, Pump Station 9, at Delta Junction on the 800-mile pipeline, busted. Thousands of
barrels began spewing an explosive cocktail of hydrocarbons after
"procedures weren't properly implemented" by BP operators, say state
inspectors "Procedures weren't properly implemented" is, it seems, BP's
company motto.

Few Americans know that BP owns the controlling stake in the trans-Alaska pipeline; but, unlike with the Deepwater
Horizon, BP keeps its Limey name off the Big Pipe.

There's another reason to keep their name off the Pipe: their management of the
pipe stinks. It's corroded, it's undermanned and "basic maintenance" is a
term BP never heard of.

How does BP get away with it? The same way the Godfather got away with it: bad things happen to folks who blow
the whistle. BP has a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers
of those who warn of pipeline problems.

In one case, BP's CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert to break into
the home of a whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, who had complained of
conditions at the pipe's tanker facility. BP tapped his phone calls with
a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear campaign against him.
When caught, a US federal judge said BP's acts were "reminiscent of
Nazi Germany."

This was not an isolated case. Captain James Woodle, once in charge of the pipe's Valdez terminus, was
blackmailed into resigning the post when he complained of disastrous
conditions there. The weapon used on Woodle was a file of faked evidence
of marital infidelity. Nice guys, eh?