Poisoned Legacy: The Human Cost Of Bp's Rise To Power

The story is all too-familiar: On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing eleven workers and creating the largest oil spill in the history of U.S. offshore drilling. But, this wasnt the first time British Petroleum and its cost-cutting practices destroyed parts of the natural world. It also was not the first time that BPs negligence resulted in the loss of human life, ruined family businesses or shattered dreams. Journalist Mike Magner has been tracking BPs reckless path for years and, for the first time, focuses on the human price of BPs rise to power. From Alaska to Kansas to the Gulf, Magner has talked to people whose lives have been destroyed by BPs almost unparalleled corporate greed. When BP acquired an abandoned Kansas refinery in 1998, it discovered one of the most contaminated groundwater plumes in the U.S. Rather than begin a full cleanup, BP declared there was no cause for concern. A former schoolteacher alarmed by cancer cases in the town pushed her community to take BP to court. In 2005, an explosion at BPs Texas City refinery, operating with a raft of safety problems because of neglected maintenance, killed fifteen people including the mother and father of a young woman who was driving there to spend the Easter holidays with her parents. A year later, thousands of gallons of oil spilled onto Alaskas North Slope from a corroded BP pipeline. Following a hurricane, BPs Thunder Horse rig almost sank because of a flaw in its construction, and repair work exposed even more serious problems. Poisoned Legacy is the searing true story of the rise and fall of BP, a company that went from being a green maverick promising a world Beyond Petroleum to one of the most notorious corporate villains in history.