Criticism of BP PLC reached a new level Tuesday when a U.S. Congressman from Louisiana suggested the company’s executives might consider killing themselves in the wake of the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, The Washington Post reported.
At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, Rep Joseph Cao (R-La.) said he wouldn’t merely be satisfied by resignations, noting that in the past, responsible parties would have faced a worse fate.
“In the Asian culture we do things differently,” Cao said to BP America CEO Lamar McKay, according to the Post.
“During the Samurai days, we’d just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri,” he said, referring to Japanese ritual suicide.
The testimony from Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron marked the first time that the industry as a group had come before Congress since the April 20 explosion of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people.