Texans would be well served to think about BP in the past, present, and especially the future.

BP’s past is littered with tragedies brought on by carelessness that results from putting stock prices before safety.  The 2005 BP Texas City explosion is a recent reminder, and the victims (15 killed, over 170 injured) of the blast bear enduring witness.

BP’s present is playing out before our eyes.  Watching the chaos and calamity unfold in the Gulf of Mexico, most of us feel helpless as the wages of BP’s sins wash onto the shores of Louisiana.  For those whose lives and livelihoods depend upon the health of the waters, wetlands and wildlife devastated in this catastrophe, cleanup and compensation are small consolation.

For the future, BP stands to avoid responsibility should another Texas refinery go up in flames, thanks to a 2007 opinion by the Supreme Court of Texas known as Entergy v. Summers.  In this opinion, the Court reversed one hundred years of precedent and in an amazing feat of judicial activism, wrote a road map for BP and other plant operators to avoid responsibility to victims of their future negligence.

Refineries depend on contract workers for tasks not performed on a regular basis.  If contractors have worker’s compensation coverage, they are immune from lawsuits by their employees.  However, “third parties,” including plant operators like BP, were liable if their negligence caused injury or death.  For the BP employees killed or injured in the blast, worker’s compensation was the only remedy against BP.  However, contractors held BP accountable in court, and millions of dollars were paid by BP to victims and their families.  That cost was a message to BP’s officers and directors in the only language they understand.

Thanks to the Entergy opinion, BP and other contractors may now contract away third party liability.  All BP has to do is provide worker’s compensation coverage for contractors’ employees.  This is not a new cost for BP.  Worker’s compensation coverage has been required in every contract with a company sending workers into a BP facility.  The cost of coverage is one element of the contract.  By simply swapping the responsibility for buying the coverage from the contractor to BP, third party liability is extinguished.  And it does not cost one penny!  BP now has less economic incentive to be safe.

The Texas legislature is considering a “fix” to the Entergy opinion.  A bill being drafted will tell the Supreme Court it cannot redesign Texas worker’s compensation law with the stroke of a pen.  This bill must be passed.

If you are concerned about BP’s past or present, offer help to the victims of the oil spill, or contribute to one of the many relief organizations providing that help.

If you want to prevent BP from getting away with another Texas City explosion, write your state representative and senator and tell them to pass the Entergy bill.