In Alaska nobody is surprised that BP's shoddy safety practices resulted in this mishap.

From the Alaska Dispatch:

Compared to the Gulf, the Alaska spills -- in March and August 2006 --were far smaller, occurred on land and were contained within days. Corroded pipelines have since been replaced, but three years later the consequences of the spills linger, spreading from northern Alaska to the halls of justice hundreds of miles away in Anchorage.

In fall 2007, BP pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and was hit with a $20 million fine and agreed to be placed on three years probation, with an option for early release if it demonstrated significant progress making improvements to its problem pipes and oversight programs. More than a year and half later, in March 2009, the feds went a step further and the Justice Department, acting on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, sued BP for a string of violations in connection with the spills.

At stake for BP are tens of millions of dollars in alleged federal violations -- fines sought in addition to those BP already agreed to pay in resolving its criminal case. The month before BP's guilty plea, an EPA investigation uncovered numerous problems with BP's operational practices at Prudhoe Bay, according to the Justice Department's complaint filed in Anchorage's federal court. In addition to leaking oil into the environment, the company failed to implement an acceptable spill-prevention and control plan and was delinquent in repairing pipelines it was under federal orders to fix, according to court filings.

It should come as a surprise to no one that BP is using it's vast legal department to fight this every step of the way.

If every allegation in the complaint sticks at trial, BP could easily be liable for more than $30 million in fines: $22 million for the spills if a judge finds the company was "grossly negligent," at least $750,000 for numerous violations of the Clean Air and Water Acts, and as much as $7 million more for a slow response to federally-ordered pipeline fixes.

According to the Justice Department, BP, after already receiving permission for several delays, failed to implement weekly cleanings and internal inspections of various pipeline segments prone to corrosion by 15 to 149 days beyond the order's deadline. In total, the complaint lists 635 days when BP was out of compliance with the order. For dragging its feet in complying with repair orders BP could be slapped with up to $100,000 per violation per day in penalties, per an April 2007 compliance order sent to BP from the U.S. Pipeline Safety Office.

It was really only a matter of time before BP's haphazard approach to safety and maintenance resulted in a huge spill.  Though I am not sure ANYBODY predicted one on this kind of scale.

And this legal fight in Alaska is only over less than a hundred million dollars.  Imagine how hard they will fight liability for the Gulf spill which is estimated to be as high as 7 billion?  You can expect this to drag through the courts for even longer than the twenty years that Exxon fought THEIR financial responsibilities.

By the way for any of you wondering if this information about BP's lax safety concerns and Todd Palin's time working for them, then you should probably know that Todd was a manager in charge of testing the blowout preventers.

I imagine that most of you don't find that terribly surprising either.  What would be surprising is if any news agencies actually pursue the story.