BP complains about sue-happy US

[Rodent + 1,424]

Animosity between oil companies and activists is growing increasingly hostile. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-21/bp-sees-legal-jeopardy-in-activists-push-for-climate-action

Now BP is refusing to answer questions of activists or even divulge climate goals for fear it could be used against them later in court. 

This article mentions a suggestion from one activist shareholder that selling oil and gas should be considered a violation of human rights.

Why do we have to live in the world of extremes? 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

So just curious, does the activist shareholder drive a car / ride the bus / fly on a plane?  Because that would be ... um ... hmmmm, what's the word I'm looking for here ...

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

On 5/21/2018 at 3:41 PM, Rodent said:

 

Now BP is refusing to answer questions of activists or even divulge climate goals for fear it could be used against them later in court. 

 

Although this posture is undoubtedly advanced by inside counsel, I would think it to be sage advice. In the USA, we have devolved into a world where the best posture is to say nothing. 

But that is not all.  In US litigation, once a lawsuit is filed, no matter how ridiculous, the plaintiff is entitled to "discovery."  And that includes all e-mail, memos, regular mail, meeting tape-recordings, just about everything.  These plaintiffs go on these fishing expeditions through the records of an entire corporation, using the volunteer labor of thousands of activists, to try to find some "smoking gun."  So it has gotten to the point where you cannot even keep any written records, certainly not of anything controversial.  Global warming?  Nope, that is a taboo subject, the words that shall never be breathed. Fracking?  That is the third rail of the oil industry, do a study on ground instability and fracking and expect to be hung from the rafters.  It creates an environment of know-nothing.  Welcome to America.