BP - Beyond Parody?

The latest news about BP (who like to trumpet their ethical nature and their aim to go "Beyond Petroleum") does not really surprise me, but nevertheless is worth noting!

The oil company BP today accepted blame for failures to protect employees, the environment and consumers as it agreed to hand over a total of $373m (£136.5m) to settle a string of criminal investigations into its conduct across America.

If the BP fines were not enough we have this fine bit of "splinter and plank" posturing from the legal representative of a government given to launching aggressive resource wars with the use of depleted-uranium munitions, stealing elections and handing out contracts in conquered territories to corporate pals:

The acting attorney general, Peter Keisler, said the deal demonstrated the US government's commitment to enforce laws to protect the integrity of both financial markets and the environment.

"Businesses that ignore those laws and endanger their workers and communities or corrupt our markets must be held accountable," said Mr Keisler.

You really couldn't make it up, could you?

Meanwhile, in Britain government policy wonks have been caught out planning the ditching and sabotaging of renewable energy targets. However, at the same time the government's transparently favoured nuclear newbuild is under threat from various problems and disagreements before the ink is dry on their fake nuclear consultation exercise. This has drawn comment from the likes of John Sauven of Greenpeace and John Vidal, the Guardian's Environment correspondent.

Meanwhile the European Commission seems set to back the building of further reactors in earthquake zones, as in Bulgaria.