Lois Capps

Thank you, Director Salerno, for your testimony, and also for the impressive amount of work you have done on new drilling and safety regulations following the Deepwater Horizon incident.

The production safety system rules were last updated in 1988, and that is more than 25 years ago.

this is an ongoing problem, and we must continue working on it.

I also want to acknowledge that this is Earth Day, and that is an annual occurrence on this date every year.

I have a very strong and personal interest in offshore drilling safety.

I know it can take decades to fully recover from an oil spill of this magnitude.

One of the issues that I do not want to lose sight of in this discussion today is the importance of safety in both deepwater and shallow water drilling.

I hope we can agree that safety should always be our top priority.

we have already talked about the Deepwater Horizon spill, one of the worst environmental disasters in our history.

Shallow is simply not a synonym for safe.

even as BP released its 5-year report hailing its efforts to clean up its own mess, others were shining a light on all the damage that remains unrepaired and undiscovered.

I think the Department of the Interior made the right choice--and the only choice--in that situation.