Political Quotes

“Well, I will tell you right now that we are open to suggestions. We are looking at trying to be reasonable in whatever we do. To just impose unlimited caps on liability could be a very serious and damaging measure. First of all, let me say I believe that BP must be held accountable, fully accountable. Certainly, that company has the resources. They must be responsible for the cleanup. Even though there is a limit under the current 1990 statute of $75 million, they must be held accountable, far beyond that, for economic damages. What we don't want to see is that we make the terms for liability so high that only a few multinational corporations will ever be in the oil business. Small producers in Texas and throughout the gulf--there are thousands of people in business--do a good job day in and day out. 3,500 of 3,600, I believe, active rigs in the gulf are in shallow water, but they shouldn't be penalized by the failure of government or by the failure of a big corporation. Let's hold their feet to the fire. So we are going to work with the Democrats. We are going to work with the administration. We are going to try to craft something that is fair and reasonable, that holds people accountable and that holds their feet to the fire. The current fund that we have shouldn't be just a slush fund or front financing of the cleanup for BP or for any big company.”