Catch the FRONTLINE doc on the BP Gulf spill on PBS tonight. A newly released excerpt shows how the oil giant behaved in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, pushing aging infrastructure that was supposed to only last until 1987 for years past its limits.

“They base everything on a risk,” says one pipe inspector who saw the amount of pipes they were allotted time to check out drastically drop as BP ran the show. “How far can we go before we lose a life, or how many lives can we afford to lose before we have to deal with this?”

Recently BP’s new CEO Robert Dudley declined to speak before a House committee investigating the Gulf spill. “As I am sure you can imagine,” he wrote to the committee, “I have an enormous amount of work to do transitioning into this role and am very focused on ensuring the right decisions are made for the future of the company and the safety of our workforce.”

The doc airs at 9pm eastern. Check your local listings.

The Spill [FRONTLINE]

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