Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
What Color is Your Money? Are you unknowingly funding lawless ‘brown pirates’ or ‘green jeannies’?
Monday, July 2, 2007
Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., Donates $9.2 Million to Marine Environmental Projects!
Okay, no they didn’t. Donate is the wrong word. Overseas Shipholding was fined $37million for criminal activities; $9.2 million was ordered community service payments to fund community marine environmental projects. Wilmington; Boston; Portland Maine; Los Angeles; San Francisco and Beaumont Texas all of which were harmed by the illegal dumping of waste oil by Overseas Shipholding Group Inc.
The US Coast Guard says Overseas Shipholding Group was deliberately polluting by dumping waste oils in the above ports. The Department of Justice agreed.
Let’s cut to the chase here and make a long story short. OSG’s management failed to stop this dumping after allegations were brought to them several times. They in fact failed to stop this activity even after the government started its investigation.
Acting on a tip from Canadian Officials an investigation was launched and it was discovered that Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. had offloaded more than 150,000 gallons of oil-contaminated waste in the waters between only Maine and Massachusetts. Adding insult to injury they falsified log records to cover-up their dirty deeds.
OSG company officials admitted in court that its “motive for the crimes was financial” “OSG was saving the cost of offloading waste oil in port and the time it would take to comply with the law,”
There is no way to read anything other than it was cheaper to pay any fines than it would be to comply with environmental regulations.
This tells me, the fines being brought are vastly too low. If this penalty is supposed to serve as a deterrent for other companies attempting to circumvent the law, it’s not going to work.
Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded tanker firms in the world and according to William Mercer, Acting Associated Attorney General, Overseas Shipholding Group “has engaged in repeated and deliberate pollution of our oceans,”
In April 2007, the Company completed the acquisition of Heidmar lightering business from Heidmar, Inc. which is a subsidiary of ‘Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc. OSG (Overseas Shipholding Group) completed the acquisition of Maritrans Inc., a US Flag crude oil and petroleum product shipping company.
On August 6, 2006 OSG announced a strategic partnership with TransCanada CNG Technologies Ltd.
Are you investing in publicly traded corperations that are commiting evil acts? If while you are planning your future and your childrens future, your investments are assuring your future demise, wittingly or not, you are contributing to global warming, and distrution of ocean habitat.
Please take a hard look at your investments and see where you stand.
It’s interesting to note; OSG’s address is listed as 666 Third Ave. New York, NY.
Kick save and a beauty, you can’t make this stuff up!
Labels: Canada, Fined, Global Warming, OSG, Ocean, Ocean Habitat, Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., US Coast Guard, illegal dumping, oil, oil spill, oil tanker, ports, waste oil
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
What Color is Your Money? Are you unknowingly funding lawless ‘brown pirates’ or ‘green jeannies’?
