Last November, the oil company British Petroleum (BP) plead guilty to a misdemeanor and paid a $20 million fine for violating the Clean Water Act related to a massive oil spill that occurred at BP’s Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska’s North Slope two years earlier. A federal judge also placed the company on probation for three years and said the 201,000 gallon oil spill was a “serious crime” that could have been prevented if BP had spent more time and funds investing in pipeline upgrades and a “little less emphasis on profit.”