BP executives received stern warnings Thursday from members of Congress outraged at the company’s admittedly deficient maintenance of leak-prone Alaskan oil pipelines, the Associated Press reports.
The executives apologized and pledged to fix operational lapses on the North Slope that led to the region’s biggest ever oil spill in March and the partial shutdown last month of the country’s largest oil field.
Lawmakers said BP’s mistakes in Alaska – as well as its responsibility for a deadly refinery fire last spring – were particularly unacceptable given the industry’s record profits and the relatively inexpensive measures that might have prevented the oil spill.
