Nick Rahall: “What we have seen in the gulf is just plain wrong. We don't know what was the final cause of this explosion and this…”

“What we have seen in the gulf is just plain wrong. We don't know what was the final cause of this explosion and this tragedy, but we know that something went wrong and we know that there are other scenarios that exist today where something may yet go wrong again. We hope not. We pray to God it does not. But the fact is we need new safety requirements, and we cannot lift any moratoria in any domestic production of energy without ensuring that the new safety requirements are met. In this pending legislation, we do that. We don't just trust what the industry gives the oil rig safety inspectors. We say you have to verify. The safety inspectors have to verify what previously had just been given to them by the industry to submit as a final safety report. So what we're doing in this legislation is not only providing ethics requirements for safety inspectors, proper training for safety inspectors, but we're also saying let's do a better job than we have in the past. And that's what this whole effort is about in the CLEAR Act.”