BP's links with Dick Cheney

Filed in archive strategy on June 4, 2010

BP had strong links with the Bush administration so it's no surprise the oil company has turned to Dick Cheney's minions for help. Threatened with receivership and criminal investigation, BP has gone and hired the public relations genius behind America's most reviled former vice president.

Anne Womack-Kolton has been hired to head up the oil company's US PR effort. America watchers such as myself and those with long memories might recall that Womack-Kolton was Dick Cheney's press secretary.

The link is not coincidental. The Center for American Progress, a Washington's liberal think-tank, released a paper branding the BP oil spill as "Cheney's Katrina".

It argued the disaster was the culmination of the cosy ties between regulators and industry. With Dick Cheney, who gave up his title as CEO of oil and gas company Halliburton to become Vice President, the Bush Administration gave Big Oil massive tax breaks and incentives while blocking any attempts to make renewable energy viable. Cheney also set up an "energy task force" in 2001 which established the Bush administration's very friendly stance towards the oil industry.

Womack-Kolton played a prominent role at the time. The Daily Kos sheds more light on her activities, pointing out that she was on that secret energy task force and that she had had close dealings with BP.

This is more than just PR, BP is drawing a line in the sand. The links between BP and Dick Cheney run deep.