There are a lot of companies in America but, thanks to Consumerist.com, we no longer need fret over which is the absolute worst company in America for this past year. The verdict is in on the deathmatch showdown between Bank of America and BP. And the loser is…drum roll, please…BP by a whisker. Let’s listen in as Consumerist discusses the finalists.
Bank of America
“With all of the bad banks out there these days, what could BofA have done that merits such hostility from the thousands of WCIA voters?
Much of the bank’s current image problem can be traced back to two acquisitions it made during the housing market collapse: Merrill Lynch and Countrywide.
In the fall of 2008, BofA saw an opportunity to become the world’s largest bank (according to assets) and swooped in to save a falling Merrill Lynch mere moments before the institution was set to go “splat!” on Wall Street.
Unfortunately, the bank — feeling the pressure from then Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson to get the deal done — took all of 48 hours to do its due diligence. Thus, the merger that was supposed to stop the domino effect caused by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, only served to put a lot of money in the pockets of Merrill’s top executives and forced BofA to make repeat visits to the TARP trough to keep it afloat.”
And now BP’s candidacy for worst company in America…
BP
“It might be misleading to think of BP as being so British, as much of what’s made the oil company so crappy stems from its expansion in recent decades via the purchase of American petroleum businesses Amoco and ARCO.
As a result of BP’s desire to expand and compete with ExxonMobil and other oilers, the company made massive cost cuts a part of its corporate culture. Alas, these cuts were made on essential things like plant upgrades and maintenance. Thus, BP has become the poster boy for refinery and pipeline disasters in recent years.
In 2005, BP dumped over 200,000 gallons of oil onto the ground in Alaska from a corroded pipeline that had been damaged because BP HQ had cut back on maintenance and hired unqualified inspectors. Staffers at the facility in Prudhoe Bay say much of the equipment there was meant to be taken offline in 1987, but BP won’t do that because it’s making too much of a profit the way things are.
That same year, 15 workers died and 170 were injured following an explosion and fire at the company’s refinery in Texas City, TX. In spite of warnings from the refinery’s manager, BP execs refused to upgrade equipment, meaning that critical sensors and alarms failed. Under oath, the BP suit in charge of refineries lied about not being warned about possible problems.
Texas City was in the news again last year when it was discovered that the plant had been releasing over half a million pounds of pollution into the air over the course of 40 days. Of course the big BP story last year was the death of 11 workers on board the doomed Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent environmental disaster.”
More than 200,000 votes were cast, with BP taking home the prize as worst company in America by garnering 50.87% compared to Bank of America’s 49.13%. Did Consumerist’s poll nail it, or is there another company out there that’s even worse? Let us know.
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