Afraidaspill's email raised concerns "in seven general topic areas affecting Alyeska personnel and operations," Thebaud's report says. "The allegations relate to all three major Alyeska locations - Anchorage, Fairbanks and Valdez."
The BP official said what's interesting about Thebaud's report is that it "narrowly examines [Afraidaspill's] concerns with exactness for substantiation of the concern exactly to the words used to define the concern."
For example, the email described Alyeska vice presidents as "neutered," "spineless" and "worn down." Thebaud's report said his probe determined that company officials are neither "neutered," "spineless" nor "worn down" and, therefore, the accusation was unsubstantiated.
"That is very unusual and a narrow viewpoint," the BP officials said. "To me this was deliberate so that [TAPS owners] could say that they could not substantiate the concerns rather than examine the meaning of the concerns."
Stanley Sporkin, BP's ombudsman, and Garde, were both said to be distressed by Thebaud's final report, which substantiated some of the initial concerns, but ultimately concluded that the issues in the Afraidaspill email and correspondence their office received from other employees had no immediate impact on the integrity of the pipeline.
Sporkin and Garde were in Anchorage last week meeting with BP officials to discuss the report and register their disapproval with the results of the investigation, Alyeska and BP officials said. Ironically, in 2006 and 2007, Garde was working with Alyeska on revitalizing their employee concerns' program and helped the company establish an open work environment, which Thebaud's report identified as areas of major concern for employees that contributed to the issues at the center of the Afraidaspill email.
Some senior Alyeska employees, who reviewed Thebaud's report, said they believed it ultimately amounts to a "whitewash" because it failed to absorb how low morale, poor leadership and a culture of fear has already affected the safe operations of a pipeline that moves anywhere from 600,000 to 700,000 barrels of oil per day and accounts for 15 percent of the country's oil supply. The employees pointed to the spill at pump station 9 as evidence of how these issues have affected pipeline safety and integrity.
Fears that the investigation would be whitewashed was a prediction Afraidaspill made in an email sent June 21 to Pasha Eatedali, an attorney who works in BP's Ombudsman's office, inquiring about the status of Thebaud's report.
"Concerned that the report will be whitewashed," the email said. "Since Alyeska is paying for [Thebaud's investigation], there's a belief that the concern report will not truly relate to the owners state of affairs at Alyeska and the irresponsible decisions that have been made by the President that will/have resulted in concern for safety and integrity," says the email, which was obtained by Truthout.
This wouldn't be the first time Thebaud has been accused of whitewashing a report concerning Alyeska. In 2006, Robert Glen Plumlee, an Alyeska financial executive, had accused Thebaud of covering up his claims of widespread financial malfeasance and retaliation by Hostler after he disclosed to Thebaud and federal investigators that he was pressured to boost estimates of how much Alyeska was spending to fight corrosion on TAPS. Neither Thebaud nor Diecker returned a call for comment.
"Bow Wave"
Although Thebaud's report downplayed the significance the issues raised in the Afraidaspill email would have on the integrity of the pipeline, he did find cause for concern in many of the allegations raised in the email.
One of the main issues alleged that Alyeska, at the direction of BP, implemented budget cuts "over the last couple of years" that has resulted in a "large 'bow wave' of deferred projects and program work," which can result "in an unsafe work place and potential for an environmental spill."
"The oversight of the integrity of the system is at risk," Afraidaspill's email said.
Thebaud's report said Alyeska slashed its 2010 budget by about $80 million last year due to the "global economic recession and other [unknown] circumstances" resulting in "significant reductions in almost all of the major programs."
However, "the reductions did not ... compromise Alyeska's safety, its environmental stewardship, or the integrity of TAPS," Thebaud's report said.
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