The BP Tragedy 5 Years Later
Texas Watch—March 23rd, 2010
On March 23, 2005 – five years ago today – 15 Texans needlessly lost their lives and scores more were seriously injured when the BP refinery in Texas City exploded. We must not forget the lessons of that awful day. It is a reminder of what can happen when the safety of workers and the community at large is sacrificed to boost profits.
We now know that this tragedy could have been prevented. The Houston Chronicle’s Loren Steffy has covered this tragedy from day one. On today’s anniversary he writes that the BP tragedy changed not only the company by an entire industry. We can only hope that as time goes on, the lessons of this tragedy are not forgotten by the industry.
Unfortunately, the law in our state has changed for the worse since 2005. Because of a dangerous decision by the Texas Supreme Court, known as Entergy v. Summers, contract workers can no longer gain access to our legal system to hold a plant or refinery owner responsible for failing to follow safety standards.
In other words, if the Texas City tragedy were to happen today, BP would be allowed to escape responsibility for its actions. The company would not have to answer to its workers or the families of those that died. We would likely never now how the company cut corners on safety.
In order to help prevent future tragedies, we must restore the rights of Texas workers. With the support of workers, consumers, and legal scholars, a brave coalition of lawmakers – both Republicans and Democrats – worked tirelessly to to roll back the Court’s wrong-headed decision during last year’s legislative session. However, because of callous and cynical reasons, a group of powerful and well-financed special interests and their lobbyists beat back this effort to preserve the immunity shield that blocks access to our legal system for workers all across our state.
As we remember the hard working men and women who lost their lives 5 years ago today, we must redouble our commitment to strong safety standards and real accountability for corporations and CEOs that make decisions that lead to preventable and needless death or injury.
To learn more about how the explosion occurred, take a look at this video from the Chemical Safety Board:
