BP - the company of I don't know

Do you ever get the feeling that British Petroleum is just exhausted of dealing with us pesky, infernal Americans? We ask so many questions - all we do is nag, nag, nag. And we are too dang sentimental about our beaches and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

As Tony Hayward, Chief Executive of BP said before jetting of to a yacht party in England, "I would like to get my life back." I guess we, Americans are just too much bother and BP is officially done dealing with us.

BP has become the company of "I don't know".

When Hayward was called before congress, he barely would admit he ran the company or that he knew anything about BP. One could almost hear him ask, "What is this BP you speak of?".

-- That left Democrat John Dingell of Michigan, the senior member on the committee, to ask Hayward a series of very specific questions on how much time and money the company saved on Deepwater Horizon as it carried out what many critics have termed  corner-cutting.-- TIME

To which Hayward responded with nothing:

I can't possibly know why the decisions were made [on the rig].
I don't know.

I can't answer the question in that form. I can't recall the number.
I can't answer because I wasn't there.
I'm afraid I can't recall.
I can't recall that either.
That was a decision I was not party to.
I don't know.
I'm afraid I don't know that either.

Henry Waxman, the chairman of the Energy Committee become so infuriated with Hayward's nonresponse-response, Waxman exclaimed, ""I'm just amazed at this testimony . . . you're kicking the can down the road like you have nothing to do with this company." - Truth Out

It has been 85 days since the oil gusher began and about 184 gallons of crude (Yahoo News) have flowed into the ocean like some giant, greasy sea monster. Still BP knows nothing - The company is like Sgt Schultz in Hogan's Heroes - "I see nothing .."

To this day, it seems like BP still has no idea how things get done. Somehow, almost magically, ships arrived at the oil spill site and started doing stuff. How that happened BP is still fuzzy about the details.

BP is even unsure as to who designed the new containment cap or how it was installed over the damaged well. When asked by the Cristian Science Monitor if the rumors were true that a mysterious plumber designed the cap -

BP spokesman Mark Salt says, "There's no way of finding out at the moment" whether Bea's forwarded suggestion from the self-described "lowly plumber" made it into the design. "There's also a good chance that this was already being designed by the time this [tip] came in."

On the other hand, Mr. Salt adds, "I'm sure we've used bits and pieces of suggestions [from the outside] and have picked things out that could be used going forward. - CS Monitor

How can BP not know the origins of how the new cap was designed? If I acted this way with my wife, I would soon be a single man.

Further Reading:

Yahoo News - Now Begins the Wait
TIME - Hayward Doesn't Know
Truth Out - Waxman comment
Democratic Underground - Joe the Plumber fixes BP
Christian Science Monitor- Mystery Plumber