ProPublica reporter Abrahm Lustgarten was a guest on PBS Need To Know last Friday to discuss the effects of the BP oil spill as the one year anniversary steadily approaches.
During the interview, Lustgarten points out that BP is much more self-deprecating than people realize. The only problem is this hasn’t actually led to any improvements in terms of safety or regulations. “BP has been more critical of itself than I or anyone else could be over the years. They have these accidents, one after another…from the Texas City explosion in 2005, and the pipeline spill in Alaska in 2006. And after each of these cases they go through this very introspective process, and they issue these lengthy reports. And the reports generally come out and say something along the lines of we have been too relaxed about safety. Our organization is complicated, and we need to shift our internal culture and yet months go by, and something happens again. And they appear to have an institutional inability to learn.”
Watch the full interview with ecologist Carl Safina and host Alison Stewart below. And for all of Lustgarten’s reporting on the BP oil spill, visit the series page.
Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.
