BP Betrayal: Beyond Petroleum Indeed - And into Tar Sands

Oil giant BP has just demonstrated the true meaning of its new brand name, Beyond Petroleum. It's not, as their mammoth global ad campaign has led us to believe, an indicator of going green, unless going green with envy of other oil companies counts. It means, rather, that the company is going beyond mere petroleum by getting into the Canadian tar sands in a big way.

The Guardian reported yesterday that BP is taking a half share in a Canadian tar sands field owned by Husky Energy. In return, Husky Energy is taking a 50% stake in BP's refinery in Toledo, Ohio. The two companies are investing $5.5 billion in the mutual-backscratching project.

This is a far cry from the posture of global leadership on climate change that BP struck in 1997 -- six months before Kyoto was even crafted.

In an unprecedented speech in 1997, Sir John Browne, then the company's chief executive, rattled the energy industry by asserting that it would be unwise to ignore the legitimate scientific concern over climate change. Six months later, the famous Protocol would emerge from Kyoto.

Browne and BP became maverick heroes, and the story got great scrutiny in both popular and academic literature. It even became the subject of a Harvard Business School case study (N9-700-106, 2000) that chronicles how BP came to realize $650 million in savings from efforts to make its business more sustainable. Talk about a poster child for climate action.

Now the company deserves to be on a WANTED poster - the kind you find in the post office. Here's what Greenpeace had to say:

In the tar sands you are looking at the greatest climate crime because not only will these developments produce 100m tonnes of greenhouse gases annually by 2012 but also kill off 56,000 sq miles] of forest that is the greatest carbon sink in the world.

Compare that to the official comment on the tar sands project by BP chief executive Tony Hayward:

Toledo and Sunrise are excellent assets. BP's move into oil sands is an opportunity to build a strategic, material position and the huge potential of Sunrise is the ideal entry point for BP into Canadian oil sands.

Ideal entry point? No such thing. And it means this investment is the start of a 40 year project.

Greenpeace has promised direct action. State officials in Alaska -- in an unrelated move -- confirmed they were preparing a civil law suit against BP for the Prudhoe Bay oil spill when 200,000 gallons of crude were released into the wilderness.

Well and good, but BP needs greater punishment for the nauseating betrayal -- not only of its now bogus brand -- but humankind.

During his tenure, Lord Browne did not allow BP to get involved in the tar sands. Goes to show you what a difference a leader can make.

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