Washington, DC – The following is the opening statement of U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL), Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Republican leader, from today’s oversight hearing on the DEEPWATER HORIZON incident and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Mica referred to the permit approval of the BP drilling plan by the Obama Department of the Interior “a carte blanche recipe for disaster”:

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is holding this hearing, first requested by our colleague from Louisiana, Representative Joseph Cao.
 
In the month of April, the nation lost 29 miners and 11 oil rig workers in two avoidable disasters.  Federal agencies failed and federal actions failed to prevent these disasters.

While this hearing is intended to cast blame on BP oil executives, the failure of the federal government in leading up to this disaster must also be documented.  I have carefully researched the timetable of the Obama Oil Spill:

Obama Oil Spill Timeline

March 10, 2009 – BP submits an Initial Exploration Plan to MMS for its Macondo well

April 6, 2009 – Obama Administration issues permit for Macondo well

February 2, 2010 – Obama proposes cuts to Coast Guard budget

February 2010  – TRANSOCEAN DEEPWATER HORIZON begins drilling Macondo well

March 31, 2010 – Obama proposes expanded offshore drilling

April 20, 2010 – TRANSOCEAN DEEPWATER HORIZON explodes, killing 11

April 21 – Coast Guard named Federal On-Scene Coordinator

April 23, 2010 – TRANSOCEAN DEEPWATER HORIZON sinks.  Fractured riser and drilling pipe begin leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  Administration summary of events finds “No Apparent Leak”

April 29 – President declares a Spill of National Significance (SONS)

May 1 – Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen appointed National Incident Commander pursuant to the declaration of the Spill of National Significance

The DEEPWATER HORIZON sank after an April 20th explosion caused a catastrophic fire on board, killing 11 crewmembers and causing the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Coast Guard was the first agency to respond to this accident on April 20, and on May 1st was selected to lead the unified command that is conducting the current response. 

Sadly, even before the disaster the Obama Administration, in February, chose to pay the Service back by proposing cuts to the number of Coast Guardsmen who would be available to respond to such catastrophes next year and to cut the number of ships and planes available to those service members. 

If nothing else good comes from this disaster, I hope Congress will at least reject those Obama Administration cuts, which if enacted, will surely affect the Coast Guard’s ability to respond to the next disaster. 

Within the realm of sound planning and preparedness the responsibility clearly rests with the federal government.

We must look at the Obama Administration’s failed process for approving the Environmental Assessment for the exploration phase of the well.

A permit approval of the BP exploration and backup safety plan by the Department of the Interior on April 6, 2009 failed to include measures that could ensure protection of the environment in drilling or in the event that problems arose.

This was essentially a carte blanche recipe for disaster.

We must also examine the Obama Administration’s cursory review of the adequacy of BP’s spill response planning.

There are real concerns about whether all parties were equipped to respond to this event beyond the assurances contained in the various response and contingency plans.  The delay from April 21 to May 1st to declare a Spill of National Significance lost valuable time in containing the spill.

I am concerned about the apparent failure by all parties to carry out their responsibilities to plan for and prevent this tragedy.

We need to have a systematic review of what was required of the industry.  With the March 31st Obama declaration of support for additional offshore drilling, remedial action now is essential.

We need to know why actions were not taken to avoid a drilling disaster, and whether the planning and operations were adequate to prepare for an event of this magnitude.

If legislative or regulatory changes need to be made, we should address them as soon as possible.
We must responsibly utilize our offshore energy resources to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil.  We can do this safely but we must insure better oversight by the federal government and industry.

The American people have serious questions about what happened.  Congress must investigate why it happened, and what we should do to prevent this from occurring again.  With dozens of deep water permits having been issued by the Obama Administration, we must act now to prevent another disaster.