Tony Hayward to Step Down as BP CEO. Does it Matter?
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Tony Hayward would likely be stepping down from his position as chief executive officer of the company. The multinational oil and gas corporation is reeling from the explosion of an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and the resulting three-month oil leak which has caused the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Looking for someone to blame, the world has pointed to the corporation (or, more generally, offshore oil drilling), but BP hasn’t had anywhere to point but inward. Perhaps that will change (they hope) if the company’s board of directors decides to oust CEO Tony Hayward during a meeting Monday night.
The meeting will be held the night before BP is to release quarterly earnings results — a release in which they’ll have to explain heavy losses due to the gulf oil spill, the true environmental and economic damage of which may never by known.
Another source speaking on condition of anonymity told the Washington Post that Hayward and several other company members who had had roles in the spill response could be punted, with Hayward being the most obvious and likely choice. Not only is he the figurehead most equated with BP and its criminal negligence, but some of his comments in the wake of the disaster have been…er, less than sensitive to victims of the disaster.
The hope for BP’s board could be that Hayward stepping down would be construed as someone taking full responsibility for the spill, and thus symbolize a new direction for the company.
The most likely successor to Hayward is American Bob Dudley, reports BBC News. Dudley is in charge of BP’s clean-up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico and would be the first American to run British Petroleum. He came to BP when it merged with Amoco in 1998.
The choice seems an obvious one from a PR standpoint. Dudley is American, more relatable to the wounded populace, and he is from Mississippi, a Gulf state — even more relatable to the wounded populace. He’s also in charge of the clean-up effort, perhaps the only visibly proactive measure BP has taken in a region where the company is now widely despised.
Does It Matter?
Whoever Hayward’s successor may be, how anyone could take the resignation of one (or even several) high-profile employees as valid, substantial evidence for the turning over of a “new leaf” for BP is beyond me. Hayward may have been in charge during the worst oil spill in U.S. history, but the laundry list of BP atrocities goes back well before him. He himself promised a new era of safety and reliability when he took power in 2007.
So a new face at BP amounts to nothing more than a new face. Their work is inherently dangerous to the environment, especially given the difficulty of finding new oil reserves, and the company’s primary goal, as it must be for any corporation, will continue to be profit — a goal impeded by increased government regulation and surveillance.
So if BP is to change, to turn over a new leaf, it will only come through increased pressure from the global public through its representative governments, assuming that each populace has more control over its government than do the oil companies in question, as is evidently not the case here in America given the near total lack of action from the U.S. Congress in response to such a revolting and unprecedented disaster. Some members of Congress even felt compelled to apologize to BP when President Obama took the company to task over its negligence and poor response to the spill.
Does Hayward’s ouster matter? Not really. Only when we put more preference on clean, renewable energy and stop coddling and subsidizing the oil and gas industry will oil and gas companies begin to see that there is safety in safety and profit in a newer, cleaner energy source. They’ll keep right on drilling and, unfortunately, the oil will keep right on spilling until we find a way to stop relying on it.
By the way, even if this did change BP for the better (not just until the heat dies down), there’s still ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips and a host of other global oil and gas companies to contend with. Broader change than a Tony Hayward resignation is needed.
Photo Credit: Guardian, nola & Boston
Posted on July 26th in Solar News by Dan.