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The five bosses of Big Oil offered some theater at House hearings: BP plus Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco-Phillips and Shell. On the one hand there was a split in the ranks as BP was dumped on by its rivals: "The CEOs of the other Big Oil companies placed the blame squarely on BP," noted ABC's Jonathan Karl. They say "they are sharing everything--people, equipment, resources--to try to help but they do not want to share in any of the blame," quipped NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. CBS' Sharyl Attkisson saw the five stand "shoulder to shoulder for their oath--then tried to distance themselves from BP."
On the other hand, the committee had access to each firm's safety planning in the event that its deepwater oil well should have a similar disaster. "Their spill response plans are strikingly similar to BP's, flaws and all," was how CBS' Attkisson characterized the criticism. A go-to marine biology expert has been dead for five years and the list of Gulf of Mexico wildlife to be protected included Arctic walruses. After all that lambasting, ABC's Karl commented that across the hall in the Senate, a proposal to cancel a program of $35bn in tax subsidies for Big Oil for production and development went down to defeat.
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