Gulf oil spill: Oil execs scolded for 'cookie cutter' spill plans
Oil company executives came under attack during congressional hearings Tuesday for having what Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) called "cookie cutter’’ oil spill response plans that are similar to, and no better than, BP’s plan in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) asked Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America Inc., to "apologize to the American people’’ for his company’s underestimating the amount of oil spewing into the gulf, now pegged at between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels a day since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
Update: A government panel on Tuesday revised that figure to 35,000 to 60,000.
Markey contended that "BP’s low-balling’’ was "either deliberate deception or gross incompetence.’’
"We are sorry for everything the Gulf Coast is going through,’’ McKay said, though he disputed that his company was responsible for the earlier estimates, which ranged from 1,000 barrels to 5,000 barrels in the early days of the disaster.
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) went further – calling on McKay to resign. "I really think in light of the performance of you as the CEO and what has occurred, I really think you should be resigning as chairman of BP America,’’ Stearns told McKay.
McKay did not respond.
Bringing up the devastating 1969 Santa Barbara spill during the hearing, Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) displayed pictures showing how a boom used then had barely changed from the booms being used today.
"I don’t see a lot of difference in technology between the cleanup in Santa Barbara and the cleanup now underway in the gulf,’’ she said.The hearing came during what has become an almost daily frenzy of activity on Capitol Hill over the disaster, which killed 11 men and started the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
A group of lawmakers, mostly Republicans and some Democrats from the Gulf Coast, stepped up their efforts to get deep-water drilling underway again, underscoring that energy policy is often shaped by regional interest rather than party affiliation. The Obama administration has enacted a six-month moratorium on such drilling, pending the findings of a presidential panel investigating ways to prevent another disaster like this one.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) likened the moratorium to "taking a jackhammer to the bedrock of the Louisiana economy’’ that depends on energy production for jobs.
On Tuesday, a group of Democratic senators sent another letter to BP calling on the company to "refrain from setting aside any funds for a dividend payment until the amount of the damages related to the oil spill can be estimated and the company has established an escrow account to cover those costs.’’
Yet more spill-related legislation was introduced, including one that would require oil companies to drill emergency relief wells at all new offshore drilling sites.-- Richard Simon
Photo: BP America Chairman Lamar McKay, pictured in the foreground at a hearing in May with officials from Transocean and Halliburton, was told by a congressman Tuesday that he should resign. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press
Drill less baby, drill less
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RZzxR8pqU
Posted by: The Bear Party | June 16, 2010 at 05:41 AM
This entire fiasco is out of control. Sure slap their hands like naughty boys.... but they have openly admitted that there is no way to stop something like this once it starts - just don't drill!
Did You Know?
BP engineers alerted federal regulators at the Minerals Management Service that they were having difficulty controlling the Macondo well (Deepwater Horizon) six weeks before the disaster, according to e- mails released by the Energy and Commerce Committee.
“I don’t think this would have happened on Exxon’s watch,” Tom Bower, author of “The Squeeze: Oil, Money and Greed in the 21st Century,” said in a June 11 Bloomberg Television interview. “They’d be much more careful and much more conscious of the need to supervise subcontractors.”
WELL excuse me your sainted Exxon....... and Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
Let’s just take a look at a few of your past misdemeanours, and then we can consider again – if the moratorium on deepwater drilling should be lifted, and place it all firmly back into your nice clean hands!
http://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2010/06/fairy-stories-about-oil-companies.html
Posted by: Just ME in TJust ME in T | June 16, 2010 at 02:06 AM
The residents of Massachusetts should demand that Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey get back to Massachusetts and resolve all the unresolved issues with the 2003 Bouchard B 120 oil spill in Buzzards Bay !
Lets look at a smaller oil spill in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts in 2003 . The Coast Guard and/or Unified Command had no boat skimmers, booms deployed were to small to handle the number six oil, only a few air guns were available to keep birds off the islands, there was no public involvement by private citizens, and after 90 days the Unified Command simply signed off and left the oiled beaches to the state! Sound familiar? Where was representative Ed Markey ?
The US Coast Guard after the 2003 oil spill fought the state of Massachusetts over the "2004 Oil Spill Prevention Act ." The Coast Guard through legal action stopped the act which would provide tug boat escorts through the bay. Whose interest does the Coast Guard have at heart? The Coast Guard actually prevented new laws to protect the bay.
Where was Rep Ed Markey ?
Since the 2003 Bouchard B 120 oil spill the federal government has denied a federal class action lawsuit against the oil company and the one Massachusetts property damage lawsuit has dragged on for eight years. Where was representative Ed Markey
How has the government stood with the people of Massachusetts? Where was Rep Ed Markey ?
Posted by: Bill Carson | June 15, 2010 at 02:02 PM