Barbara Boxer

This is an ongoing nightmare, and if ever we are going to reform, it is now because it is fresh in people's minds.

Will you consider a separate entity outside of MMS, as opposed to a safety agency located within MMS?

I am very glad that the President is doing this commission.

I am going to push hard on a DOJ investigation because I know what was said.

I feel that the Justice Department ought to take a look to see whether false statements were made.

This insertion tube may be capturing some oil, but it is not capturing most.

BP agreed to release all the video of the spill.

It was, and is the intent of the members of this body that your agency follow the law and implement the program of record.

I appreciate your being with us, and I hope we can work together so that we do not have to have any more of these moments in time where we say, oh, my God, what have we done, and how do we fix it, and what if we cannot?

I think if you go back to what you did, you essentially did not address the actual threat at all.

Would you support making sure that when you come to, frankly, the U.S. Government, and you want to lease taxpayer owned leases, that you will allow, not only allow but support, the full NEPA process to take place?

You do not have a good safety record. I hate to tell you this. I read a lot of it out loud.

I would be derelict in my responsibility if I did not work to increase Federal oversight and give more opportunity for the public to come out and express themselves through laws like the National Environmental Policy Act.

I was glad that you said that, at least I took from what you said, you are a little lawyer-like in answering it, but I took from what you said that you would support efforts for stronger safety oversight.

We have got to transition away from this.

It is really leaving great uncertainty with all of us. And it is a reason why a lot of us do feel, not all of us, that we have got to move to clean energy here.

Commercial and recreational fisherman could be out of work for months, be forced to deal with fisheries for years.

What I think my colleague is trying to do, as best we can, is, he is asking if there could be a connection between the lack of the plug and the explosion.

So, you would not oppose that proposal?

Do you feel that we ought to now have a reform where we separate out the safety inspections from the permitting process?

All of this, I have to tell you, is falling like a house of cards.

No, I do not feel good at all today.

I am never satisfied.

I am going to put in the record this article from May 8, 2010, for BP a history of spills and safety lapses.

How much oil do you estimate will spill between now and 90 days if, God forbid, we have not figured out another way to go to cap this well?