Charlie Melancon: “I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to lift the deepwater moratorium for companies that meet the new safety…”

“I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to lift the deepwater moratorium for companies that meet the new safety requirements and guidelines recently set in place by Secretary Salazar. Make no mistake, BP was a bad player. As we have discovered through numerous congressional hearings, this company took dangerous shortcuts to save money. They ignored warning signs and the advice of their own workers who were concerned about the stability of the well, and they continued to drill even when they knew that the safety mechanisms in place to prevent a blowout were not working properly. Eleven good men died because of their greed. The tragedy on Deepwater opened our eyes to the need for tougher safety regulations for offshore drilling, to the need to strengthen the enforcement of both new and existing laws, and to the need to protect workers who report their companies' dangerous and even illegal practices to regulators so that we can stop another accident before it happens. Yet an indiscriminate blanket moratorium punishes the innocent along with the guilty for the actions and the poor judgment of one reckless company.”