Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes. Mr. Chairman, 1 year has passed since the Deepwater Horizon accident. Yet BP, Transocean, Halliburton, and Cameron continue to argue in court which of them deserves more blame for the 11 deaths and environmental devastation. BP continues to fight the estimates of the amount of oil spilled in order to minimize its liability. And more than 1 year after the beginning of this disaster, Congress has still not passed any legislation to improve the safety of offshore drilling and ensure that the lessons of the BP spill are incorporated into future drilling. The co-chairs of the independent BP commission have testified before the Natural Resources Committee that the accident could have been prevented, and the commission found that the root causes of the disaster were systemic to the entire industry. Their extensive reports documented numerous specific failures of the cementing, well design and testing and maintenance associated with the Deepwater Horizon well. And recently, the Department of the Interior's contractor, Det Norske Veritas, released its report on the forensic investigation of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer, and here's what they found: the results indicated that the drilling pipe inside of the blowout preventer had buckled due to the force of the blowout; and the cutting devices, therefore, couldn't fully sever the drill pipe and seal off the well.…”