US News

Outrage at haughty ‘small’ talk

NEW ORLEANS — The BP chairman’s comment that the oil giant cares about “the small people” received an icy reception yesterday from residents along the Gulf Coast.

BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, who is Swedish, told reporters in Washington, “I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are — are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people.”

Justin Taffinder of New Orleans was not amused.

“We’re not small people. We’re human beings. They’re no greater than us. We don’t bow down to them. We don’t pray to them,” Taffinder said.

Terry Hanners, who has a small construction company in Gulf Shores, Ala., said the “small people” remark revealed something about BP’s frame of mind.

BP spokesman Toby Odone said that “it is clear that what he means is that he cares about local businesses and local people. This was a slip in translation.”