Don’t blame the BP blowout on the engineers

After 42 days of hand wringing at corporate BP, it’s pretty clear that the blowout now wrecking the world’s most fertile delta was not the fault of engineers. It was the fault of managerial titles, none of which included the title of safety, security, environment or brand.

A year ago, you can bet the view among BP’s top management was that they answer to nobody but the “shareholders” and the rest of us can all go jump in the lake, or the ocean. With no serious investments in deepwater backup, just surface skimming “technology” from the sixties, it’s clear now that BP’s management invested another year of risk, hoping to cash in on another $20 billion year in profits. But hey, in their defense, it was a calculated risk.

The shareholders would have approved, right?

Somewhere along the way, you can bet the would-be leaders at BP raised their voices in favor of safety, security, environment and brand; and among these were the engineering teams whose voices were politely heard…

Then buried by 5,280 feet of deep disregard.

jb