On the recordJune 10, 2010
It's been more than 30 days since the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. In that time, at least 40 million gallons of oil have entered our oceans. To give you some idea what this means for the gulf coast, if the oil disaster was centered in my district, it would completely cover New York City, Long Island, Connecticut, and northern New Jersey, and far more in the east and the west. With a disaster of this enormous magnitude, it's absolutely critical we know everything we can about the oil, its scope and its effect on the Gulf of Mexico. But according to recent reports, BP is refusing to provide critical samples and data to scientists studying the disaster. Scientists researching the vast underwater damage of the oil spill have been denied oil samples from BP. Other scientists studying the flow rate at the source of the oil haven't received high quality video they requested from BP's underwater robots. Still more researchers have asked for, but not received, access to much-needed data to study oil plumes beneath the surface of the ocean. It is imperative for BP to give scientists inside and outside of government access to every sample, every data point, and every other resource they need to help us understand the truth about BP's oil disaster. The American people have a right to know.
