Benefit of the Doubt: I don’t know whether BP is guilty of a disregard for safety or merely over-promising. But this piece in the FT, by the legislative affairs director of an Oregon environmental group, does show the value of effective public relations. Every now and then, all the deposits a company makes in the trust bank pay a dividend like this.

It’s hard to imagine anyone in the environmental movement rushing to author the same kind of column asking for the benefit of the doubt for ExxonMobil.