Does BP have the market on reckless cornered?
A lot of people opposed to our BP Boycott like to offer a half-hearted defense of BP, saying that BP is no worse than Exxon, Shell or any other oil company. Bradford Plumer in The New Republic explores the argument by asking (If not actually answering) ‘Was BP Uniquely Reckless?’ (via The Daily Dish). What’s interesting about the graphic above is that it was produced by the American Energy Alliance, an industry front group. Plumer says it makes sense that oil industry lobbyists would build a case against BP:
It becomes a lot easier to build support for drilling if you can pin the Gulf disaster on BP’s unique brand of recklessness rather than the inherent riskiness of deepwater drilling.