On the recordJune 10, 2010
I was pleased with the Attorney General's comments today about the oilspill in the gulf, the gusher of oil that continues in the gulf, and about BP's responsibility. There is no question that BP has said they pledged to cover legitimate costs as a result of this oilspill. The question I have is, Is that a binding agreement? And the answer from the Justice Department at a hearing recently was, no, it is not binding. If that is the case, if it is not binding--and I believe it is not--we need to move to take steps to make that pledge binding. There are people today who are trying to figure out how on Earth do they get through this situation. In addition to oil spilling out into the gulf--and it has been doing that I think for 52, 53 days--there are people on a dock in a small town somewhere who are fisher men and women. They have a boat and they fish for a living. But their boat is idle at the end of the dock because they cannot fish. Yet they have to make a payment on that boat at the end of the month. Up and down the gulf, there are significant consequences of this situation. The question is, Who is going to reach out to help those folks? They did not cause these problems.
