The BP Money Trail

Goldman Sachs sold $250 million of their stock in BP and BP chief Tony Hayward sold $2 million of his shares just before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP sold their stock in the first quarter of 2010 and Tony Hayward sold his weeks before the spill started. Some conspiracy theorists might say that they new this was going to happen or even go so far as to say that it was orchestrated. I think Goldman Sachs and Tony Hayward might have known that with BP's horrible safety record it was just a matter of time before something really bad happened, so they pulled out while they still could.

The Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign research organization, shows BP has given $6.212 million to nearly 1,OOO candidates for federal office over the past 20 years. President Obama was the biggest recipient of that money. This might explain why the government hasn't taken legal action when they found out BP was withholding information and blocking photographers access to the sites that are the most damaged by the oil. Federal officials even seem to be working with BP to cover-up how bad this really is. Meanwhile we get people like Sarah Palin and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal calling for more offshore drilling.

BP could make about $1.4 million in revenue a day from the oil being captured by the current containment efforts. That means the Treasury will also make royalties of the oil BP manages to siphon from the well and from the oil that has spilled into the ocean. Maybe that is why BP started with efforts to cap and siphon the oil before trying to plug the well. Whatever is more profitable right?

You can find a lot of info about British Petroleum at their SourceWatch page.