A Pattern of Profit Above All Else

As I've noted before, British Petroleum is not in the petrochemical industry for altruistic reasons, no matter what their ads say... and BP rebranding itself as green ("Beyond Petroleum") doesn't make it green.

They're all about profit, and will pretty much go to any measure to secure it.

In Alaska, BP has a track record of foregoing needed maintenance - with near disastrous results - because money saved deferring maintenance adds to the bottom line.

BP has a history of combating regulations that might have prevented the ongoing BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico... because complying with more stringent standards might cut into company profits.

The oil now hitting Louisiana's coast and marshes may be the most egregious example to date of BP's dedication to profit, greed, but it really should surprise no one.

Nor should BP's current scramble to distance itself from any blame for this continuing catastrophe (it's Transocean's accident, not BP's!) surprise us.

What should surprise us is that the world allows them to repeat this amoral behavior over and over and over again.

How massive do their "mistakes" have to be before the world cries "enough!"?