BP downplayed the risks of an oil spill in the Great Australian Bight and even suggested that cleanup efforts—in case of such a spill—would be a “welcome boost” to the local coastal economies, correspondence between the supermajor and Australia’s environmental regulator NOPSEMA has revealed. BP quit the Great Australian Bight last year, passing the torch to Statoil. But now letters released under freedom of information legislation provide details about the company’s environmental plans for the region and are bound to spark outrage among environmentalists. First published in Climate Change News, the letters suggest that BP had failed to properly address the extent of potential environmental damage in case of a spill and the impact on the local marine fauna of drilling activities. For example, Climate Change News writes, oil spill modeling submitted by BP to NOPSEMA two years ago had shown an oil spill could reach as far as New […]