Oil Watchdog

07-10-07 by Simpson

If you’ve been lulled into a calm acceptance of oil industry practices by the barrage of warm, fuzzy and reassuring industry ads, take heed of a message from Carolyn Merritt, chairwoman of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

“When the rules aren’t followed, things blow up,” she told Dow Jones News Service.  

And, apparently the rules are not being followed.

Merritt said a probe by her agency shows that companies are not following so-called “process safety management” guidelines designed to prevent the sort of accident that caused the explosion killing 15 people at BP’s Texas City refinery in 2005.  

She went on to say that 80 percent of the 600 cases reported to her agency are at small to medium businesses in populated areas creating a potential for catastrophes.

“Unless there’s a consistent application of the rules that already exist…there is a risk to the population," she told Dow Jones’ Ian Talley outside a meeting of the Senate Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security and Water Quality subcommittee.

Talley reported Subcommittee Chairman Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said he would soon introduce legislation at the recommendation of the safety board to strengthen the agency’s oversight authority.

Meanwhile, do you think it would be too much to ask companies to play by the rules so things don’t blow up? Or would that hurt the bottom line?