Jim Inhofe

Anyone who has the responsibility for not having done what they said they were going to do, whether that is the private companies that were involved, including BP and others, or whether it was people in the public sector, they will be held…

We need to mitigate and contain the environmental impacts; provide assistance to the Gulf's commercial and recreational fishing industries; and investigate the causes so we can prevent a disaster of this kind from happening again.

We must contain the spill and protect the Gulf Coast and the people who live there.

The most important order of business is to stop the leak . . . and we need to stop it as soon as possible.

I felt at that time that that is premature, as the President stated also.

I hope we will do both.

Senator Menendez's bill, S. 3305, would amend the OPA. He may not know it, but his bill is a big help for big oil companies, such as BP.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that this spill has occasioned some fatally misguided legislation, which will make us more dependent on foreign oil.

It might come as a surprise to some people in this room, but I want to commend President Obama for his speech on the oil spill last Friday.

I just hope that we could all guard against this and keep in mind that we have something to do.

I support Senator Sanders' amendment No. 3738 regarding Federal Reserve transparency. As a cosponsor of S. 604, the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009, my support for these efforts is clear. American taxpayers have a right to know how…

I hope the witnesses will discuss what we really do, and perhaps most important do not know about oceans.

Our oceans are a precious resource, and we should take appropriate steps to ensure they are protected.

I worry that this is another attempt to enact a climate change regime without one single vote of this Congress.

Of course, there is a storm season in the Gulf when the hurricanes generated across the Caribbean tend to sweep through.

This source is continuing to gush out at 5,000 barrels a day. And that impact, none of us will really know, can fully understand.

But once it starts rolling up on those beaches, in Panama City and those white beaches, in Alabama and Mississippi and New Orleans, then the outrage is going to go into political pressure to get something done.

I believe, enormously difficult, and it could go on, as some of the previous speakers mentioned, it could exceed Exxon Valdez.

We will also discuss the concept of ocean acidification.

These efforts were out there, and you have been, does that imply, that would imply to me that you have been complying with the recommendations that the MMS had?

They show up on our drilling rigs regularly, unannounced, they conduct thorough inspections of the drilling rigs.

I thought that that pretty much had worked.

I still stand by the statement that I would rather you go ahead and get that done. Then the blame game can take place later.

I implied, and I really believe that you guys, your time would be better spent right now down there trying to contain this mess than it is up here at hearings.

I believe their actions made America more dependent on foreign oil, from countries that have few environmental restrictions.