On May 3, Texas Attorney General Abbott held a press conference, announcing  BP has made "all the right actions and all the right comments" but that the Attorney General's office would be watching to "ensure that BP's action lives up to its current words."  Our press release highlights BP's recent confident claims concerning containment offshore and ability to solve massive oil leaks.  The Texas Attorney General's claimed role in "ensuring" BP lives up to its promises is worth analysis. 

BP has a track record of not living up to their promises.  OSHA fined BP another $80 million last September for not living up to their promise to make necessary repairs to the Texas City facility within the four year time frame they agreed to in their plea agreement with OSHA stemming from the March 2005 Texas City disaster.

While Attorney General Abbott claims a record of environmental enforcement success, his record reveals the opposite.  The Texas Attorney General chose to characterize the famous ASARCO case and the enforcement action as "successful" in page 4 of his formal, filed pleading to the EPA. He claimed "as a result of the settlement, ASARCO will spend $1.8 billion remediating 80 hazardous waste sites in 19 states." The amount allocated for the El Paso smelter: $52 million. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso provided detailed, publicly released information on the inadequacies of the settlement.  In his letter to the Mr. Abbott, Senator Shapleigh explained in detail why the $52 million wouldn't nearly cover the $250 million estimated cost of remediating the main site, let alone the related damage.

During this current crisis, Attorney General Abbott has been too quick to rationalize the actions of BP.  His job is not to protect catastrophe-prone companies.  Mr. Abbott should retract his foolish comments.

Endorsement & Press

Today, the Latino Labor Leadership Council of Southeast Texas endorsed Barbara Ann Radnofsky for Texas Attorney General.  President Steven Flores stated, "In recognition for her steadfast approach to her duties as one of the 'Best Lawyers in America', her experiences as a mediator and arbitrator for over thirty years, and her deep connection to her community through teaching and service work, we are proud to endorse Barbara Ann for this prestigious office. As advocates for fairness and equality for all working people in Texas and throughout our nation, our community continuously seeks someone we can put our trust in and be proud to call our own.  By this endorsement, we embrace her knowledge of the Law; her successful experiences in the courtroom; as a certified mediator and arbitrator in a wide field of issues, and as a good neighbor." 

In addition to endorsement news, the last few days have been packed full of issues and news that affect Texas.  Barbara Ann has been responding with op-eds and press releases about her positions on the most current issues.  Please check out her Rio Grande Guardian op-ed about Abbott's failure to advocate for a VA hospital south of San Antonio and her comments in the Texas Tribune about the unconstitutionality of the Arizona immigration law.

In a seperate press release, Barbara Ann analyzed the revisions to the Arizona immigration law and its expected use for voter intimidation. On May 3, we highlighted an award winning law review article that provides accounting and legal proof of the unconstitutionality of the Texas margin tax. Barbara Ann called on the Attorney General to withdraw his inaccurate opinion which enabled this income tax to be levied without the constitutionally required vote of the people.