BP and Halliburton Skip Mississippi Hearings On The Oil Disaster
Late last month, Mississippi state House Speaker Billy McCoy (D) and Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant (R) created a select committee to investigate the Gulf Coast oil spill. “[T]he people of Mississippi deserve to know how this happened and what the future may hold for this most valuable part of our state,” said McCoy. A key part of the select committees’ mission would be to hold hearings with top officials from companies responsible for the spill.
However, yesterday, BP wrote a letter saying it wouldn’t be showing up for the three-day hearings this week. ThinkProgress obtained the letter to McCoy, addressed from Margaret D. Laney, BP’s Mississippi Coordinator for Public and Government Affairs.
Who's to blame for the BP Gulf oil spill. Everyone with half a brain knows it is the fault of BP, Halliburton and TransOcean. We can also add in the anti-regulation crowd -mostly conservative - that receive the majority of oil industry money - for fighting against safety precautions like a remote controlled safety valve. A valve that other countries require. The conservaotive media is on their brooms swearing it is everyone's fault except the oil industry, Right-wing pundits ludicrously blame oil spill on environmentalists
Krauthammer: We're drilling deep because "environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coasts off-limits to oil production." In a May 28 National Review Online article, Charles Krauthammer blasted environmentalists for driving oil companies into deeper waters. Krauthammer concluded that "we [are] drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place" in part because "environmental chic has driven us out there."
Doocy: "Back in the day, they used to just drill pretty close to shore," but environmentalists "pushed them out further and further." On the June 3 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy stated that "back in the day they used to just drill pretty close to shore," but "as the environmentalists said there's a real danger here, they pushed them out further and further." Doocy then cited an editorial in Investor's Business Daily that he said made the "good point" that "questions would this be so tough to cap and stop if it weren't pushed into water almost a mile deep by environmentalists."
If Conservatives swear something is true, it's generally an indication they're ignorant boneheads lying to sling mud against their opponents and convince the sheeple that hang on their every word to follow the hard Right. MMS=Minerals management Service -
MMS: "remarkable increase" in deep-water drilling due in part to "finding of reservoirs with high production wells." According to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS): "The deepwater portion of Gulf of Mexico has shown a remarkable increase in oil and gas exploration, development and production. In part this is due to the development of new technologies reducing operational costs and risks, as well as the finding of reservoirs with high production wells. "
MMS report: "Best source of new domestic energy resources lies in the deep water Gulf of Mexico." In a 2004 report -- titled Deep Water: Where the Energy Is -- the MMS stated that "our best source of new domestic energy resources lies in the deep water Gulf of Mexico and other frontier areas." MMS reported that due to "declining production" in "near-shore, shallow waters" in the Gulf of Mexico, "energy companies have focused their attention on oil and gas resources in water depths of 1,000 feet and beyond." MMS estimated that "the deep water regions of the Gulf of Mexico may contain 56 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or enough to meet U.S. demand for 7-1/2 years at current rates."
