Whistleblower sues over firing during BP gulf oil spill cleanup

BP allegedly fired a worker for refusing to change data so that the company could claim the gulf oil spill cleanup was over and begin the restoration phase of the operation. The worker claimed a BP vice president said the announcement that the cleanup was over would provide a needed boost for BP stock prices. [...]

Halliburton claims British Petroleum defamed them in report on Gulf oil spill

Halliburton is not willing to sit back while a report from British Petroleum pins the blame for the Gulf oil spill on them with a claim that the company did a faulty cement job on the Deepwater Horizon well. Halliburton is suing BP in a Texas court calling the report “self serving” with serious omissions [...]

Online newspaper refuses to honor federal court order to remove video clips relating to Gulf oil spill

An online newspaper The Daily is refusing to comply with a federal judge’s order to remove video clips of former British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward testifying on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The judge indicated she may rescind the order. The court had issued a pretrial order forbidding the publication [...]

Gulf oil spill: Federal government forced to subpoena Transocean safety records

The federal government reached its limit in patience and issued subpoenas for 12 years of safety records from Transocean after this year’s disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. -db Courthouse News Service November 29, 2010 By Sabrina Canfield NEW ORLEANS (CN) – The United States says Transocean has blown off its [...]

News rater, anti-Palin group win government contracts

The federal government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to appraise whether news stories about its actions during the Gulf oil spill were positive or negative for the Obama administration. September 15, 2010 By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The administration was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W. [...]

British Petroleum caught doctoring oil spill photos

BP admits it ‘Photoshopped’ official images as oil spill ‘cut and paste’ row escalates British Petroleum caught doctoring oil spill photos To try to recoup some vestige of public confidence, BP has ordered their staff to stop photoshopping images of the gulf of Mexico oil spill. db London Telegraph July 22, 2010 By Andrew Hough [...]

Government Says Gulf Oil Spill Hasn’t Entered Human Seafood Supply. Really Now?

Summary:  While government officials say oil has not reached the food supply, citizens and local fisherman worry that seafood is already highly contaminated and toxic. -SMD BP Gulf Disaster Analysis/Commentary July 4, 2010 By  Simon Atkins On July 1, 2010, April Fulton with NPR (National Public Radio) reported that the government said that the oil from [...]

Watchdog group: Lack of transparency damages ability to deal with oil spill disaster

OMB Watch, a nonprofit devoted to promoting government transparency and accountability, says that lack of information from the government and BP has hampered the public’s ability to deal with the spill. In particular, BP has not revealed the chemical makeup of the dispersants so that scientists and others can determine their possible long term consequences. -db [...]

Reporter claims public information privatized in Gulf oil spill

A New York Times reporter says that the U.S. government has relinquished control of information to BP who is blocking its free flow to protect its bottom line. -db The New York Times Commentary June 13, 2010 By David Carr The three journalists crept along in a boat captained by James Ledet in a bayou [...]

Environmental Protection Agency unveils new policy to discourage stonewalling on health and safety

The EPA announced a new policy that promises greater scrutiny of industry claims of trade secret in their attempts to conceal threats to health and safety. BP is currently using the trade secret claim to block access to chemical information related to the oil spill. -db OMB Watch Analysis June 2, 2010 The U.S. Environmental [...]

Charges surface that British Petroleum is limiting media access to gulf oil spill

Amid several instances in which the media has been limited in covering the gulf oil spill, authorities say they are coping as best they can with the floods of reporters. They deny that BP is calling the shots and say they are allowing access to the story with the constraints of safety and protecting the [...]

Media claims BP blocking access to gulf oil slick

News photographers are saying that government officials working with British Petroleum are denying them access to both the oil disaster area and the beaches and marches affected by the spreading oil. -db PR Watch.org May 27, 2010 News photographers are saying that their efforts to document the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico [...]

British Petroleum not divulging test results on worker safety in gulf oil spill

Critics are saying that the federal government is not doing enough to get BP to improve monitoring in the gulf oil spill and to release test results on worker exposure to evaporating oil and burning oil. -db McClatchy Newspapers Commentary May 18, 2010 By Marisa Taylor and Renee Schoof WASHINGTON, D.C. — BP, the company [...]

Coast Guard’s web-based news site on Gulf oil spill may provide model for covering future disasters

The Coast Guard’s Deepwater Horizen Response site created in 24 hours to cover the Gulf oil spill has been so successful in providing photos and information about the spill that some say the site could become a model for how government disseminates information during disasters. -d NextGov May 5, 2010 By Bob Brewin Crisis management [...]