Rep. Matsui Questions Regulatory Body Charged With Overseeing BP, Other Deep Water Drilling Operations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 20, 2010

CONTACT: MARA LEE
(202) 225-7163

Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) participated in the House joint hearing by the Energy and Environment and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittees on the Role of the Interior Department in the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. At the hearing, Rep. Matsui emphasized that both BP and the government's first priority must be to ensure that the well is both properly and permanently plugged, but that it is also incumbent upon each of the responsible parties to make sure something like this never happens again. Rep. Matsui's opening statement, as prepared for delivery, is below:

I would like to welcome Secretary Salazar, and former Secretaries Kempthorne and Norton, and to thank all of you for appearing before us today. I think we can all agree that the BP Oil Spill reminds us of the dangers of offshore drilling, as well as the severe environmental and economic impacts when something goes wrong.

As this unprecedented disaster continues to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico, it has raised significant questions about industry practices and regulatory standards relating to drilling for oil.

In our ongoing investigations about the causes of this catastrophe, we learned that BP ignored important safety precautions and largely dismissed industry's best practices related to the well design and other infrastructure that could have prevented such an accident.

However, as Secretary Salazar acknowledged two months ago, the Department of the Interior had issues with its oversight of offshore drilling activities, and that those problems may have helped contribute to the spill. It is for these reasons that I have been pleased to see the Interior Department's recent overhaul of federal regulations relating to oil drilling and exploration activities.

BP and the government's first priority must continue to be to ensure that the well is both properly and permanently plugged. Moreover, with the cost of the debacle now approaching $4 billion, we must make sure that nothing like it ever happens again.

And within that context, Congress must continue to examine the Interior Department's role in the present and the past - in regards to the oversight and management of such critical regulatory bodies.