Two Congressional staffers, who have seen the report and commented on it after Hostler's meeting with oversight committee staffers last week, confirmed that it substantiated some employee concerns about the safety and integrity of TAPS. It's unclear what specific issues lead Thebaud to reach those conclusions.
However, Alyeska summarized the report's findings to employees in a company-wide email distributed June 30 far differently.
"Most of the concerns were not substantiated," says the email sent to employees, obtained by Truthout. "Specifically, the concerns about safety, integrity and environmental protection were not substantiated."
However, "the investigation did conclude that there are opportunities to improve the Open Work Environment," says the email signed by TAPS owners Charles J. Coulson of BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., Bij Agarwai of ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska Inc., Gary Pruessing of ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, Michelle West of Koch Alaska Pipeline Company and Jim Avioli of Unocal Pipeline Company. "This is consistent with the recent employee survey that demonstrated there has been a reduction in employee comfort in reporting concerns to senior management."
Egan said Alyeska's "Business Practices/Employee Concerns program (which recently merged with our Compliance and Ethics Group) will develop a plan for enhancing the open work environment" to deal with issues of intimidation and fear.
A BP Alaska official and several people close to the ombudsman's office said Sporkin and Garde were "livid" by Alyeska's characterization of Thebaud's investigation.
These people said Sporkin fired off a letter to BP late last week stating that he perceived Thebaud's report did substantiate a number of safety and integrity issues raised by employees. Furthermore, Sporkin told McKay, who he had spoken to about the employee complaints prior to the launch of Thebaud's investigation, that he should order Alyeska to reverse its decision to relocate employees from Fairbanks to Anchorage.
Neither Sporkin nor Garde returned calls for comment.
Rinehart, the BP Alaska spokesman, said he was not familiar with Sporkin's letter and had no comment. Spokespeople for the other oil companies did not return calls for comment.
Egan said she was unaware of any such letter sent by Sporkin and she reiterated that Thebaud's report "indicates there is no substantiated safety or integrity concern."
Scott Schloegel, Stupak's chief of staff, would not discuss the contents of the report, but he did say it was "serious" and "concerning." He added that, while the relocation of the integrity management team was a "business decision" by Alyeska, the oversight staff intends to monitor whether the move will impact safety.
Alyeska "needs to know we are watching them," Schloegel said.
Klinger, the spokeswoman for PHMSA, added that her agency couldn't do anything about the relocation and echoed Schloegel.
"It's a business decision," Klinger said. "However, we'll be monitoring the move to determine if it affects the integrity of the pipeline."
Egan noted that the oversight committee requested a copy of the 39-page relocation analysis, indicating that Congressional staffers may not be satisfied with the company's assertions that moving employees hundreds of miles away from the pipeline won't have a direct impact on safety.
That document says more than half of the integrity management team "are accountable for and play a lead role in identifying regulatory requirements, methods of compliance and methods of monitoring for at least 30 federal regulations."
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