Rep. Markey Wants All Oil Response Resources Directed To The Gulf, Introduces Bills To Improve 'Tool Kit'

Democratic Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts called for the nation's oil response resources to be directed to the Gulf, expressing his concern for the sturdiness of current equipment as beleaguered officials in New Orleans brace for the possibility of a tropical storm this weekend amid the looming threat of hurricane season.

"I do believe that we should prepare for a worst-case scenario. We should assume that a tropical storm is going to come through the Gulf of Mexico and we should assume that we will need every single skimmer both domestically and internationally which is available. That we will need every piece of boom domestically and internationally and we will need every piece of protective gear for the workers that are, that is available..." Markey said Friday in an interview with Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. "Admiral Thad Allen actually said that it could be a very fragile pipe down there. It has been traumatized. Right now neither Admiral Allen nor BP knows the exact condition of that pipe, but we know that it has gone through substantial trauma because of the accident...because of all the different events that have occurred over the last two and a half months and we just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that this one final effort will be successful, although past history has shown that BP is making it up as they go along."

"His position from the very start was, if there are resources that other countries or other companies can bring to bear if it's appropriate, then they should be allowed to do it," Markey spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder told the HuffPost Friday.

Moving all the country's oil response resources to the Gulf would require the cooperation of the Coast Guard and the president, and no Congressman can order an international response, but Markey is taking action where he can. On Friday Markey, the chairman of a House energy committee investigating the oil spill, introduced two bills that would divert big oil subsidies to scientists and get real safety response plans in Gulf.

The first bill, the Stop Oil Spills Act, would redirect $50 million a year from oil and gas royalty payments to fund Department of Energy grants for developing 21st-century oil safety and spill response technology research. It comes on the heels of BP CEO Tony Hayward's admission that his company did not have a "tool-kit" to respond to a sizable spill from a deepwater well. The effort has cost BP $2.35 billion so far.

"As the big oil companies have continued to push the limits to drill ultra-deep, it has become painfully clear that they have not kept pace with technology needed to make the drilling ultra-safe and to have any potential cleanup response be ultra-fast," said Markey in a statement Friday.

The bill calls for a repeal of current legislation, establishing federal subsidies for industry research of deepwater drilling technology, targeting development in blowout preventers and secondary control systems, and improving technologies to capture hydrocarbons that have escaped from offshore wells.

The second piece of legislation Markey introduced on Friday, the Better Oil Spill Response Plan Act of 2010, supplements the first with provisions to force oil companies within six months to provide the federal government with updated response plans, including estimates of the worst-case scenarios for oil and gas drilling. It also require the federal government to revise regulations for the oil and gas companies' facility and vessel response plans within the year, making sure that these response plans take new worst case scenarios into account and update, within nine months, their response plans with lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon leak.

The bills will be referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee, though the likelihood of passage is unclear. "We expect that [these bills] will be part of the discussion, of some comprehensive legislative response, going forward," said Burnham-Snyder. "We hope people will consider them."

More immediately, however, Markey is calling for a relocation of current response resources to the Gulf. "We should just assume that and hope that we don't have to use it."

Comments

[Derek Spisak]

09:21 AM on 06/28/2010

I politely disagree with Rep. Markey's assertion that all response assets should be positioned in the Gulf. I would think secondary staging areas should be required. Unfortunately, my experience in during Hurricanes is that all too often the equipment of the first responders will be swamped or damaged, requiring the sourcing of new equipment, and delaying an effective response after the weather event.

Do I believe more can be done? Yes.

It has been 2 months since the oil/gas blow-out has occurred and yesterday my childhood beach, Bellefontainem, a pristine natural beach in Ocean Springs, MS was spoiled by oil.

Gov Barbour and Rep Taylor 2 months of denial did not help.

Even with an additional three days notice that the oil was approaching, no responders nor skimmers where deployed.

Unlike the beaches affected in Florida and parts of Alabama which are directly open to the Gulf, the coast on the interior of the Mississippi Sound is relatively calm, and suitable for skimming of oil.

Yet the words of the Coast Guard official in charge of the response say it all,

(from McClatchy Newspapers) Ocean Springs Alderman Gill later asked Coast Guard Lt. Mike St. Jeanos whether the city could “count on Unified Command to have assets” for the city.

In response, St. Jeanos said, “My answer to that is we don’t know. Unfortunately, ... That is probably an honest answer. If I had control of it, I’d have a boat skimming off Horn Island.”

[Kabury]

03:58 PM on 06/27/2010

Just taking a look at some of the images from the gulf area gives you a sense of how much will be needed to clean up and rebuild the economy. Check out this short moving video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbD8Z6dNvXc Share it if you like it.

[funkyou]

04:59 PM on 06/27/2010

I really appreciate you spreading this around...the more info that gets out the better, you did a real nice job!!
Don't know why I don't how up as your fan though.

[aflyinyoursoup]

01:44 AM on 06/27/2010

This thing happened over two months ago. The resources that have been directed to rectify this disaster have been puny at best. The sense of urgency is just now coming to the fore?
There's something very stinky about the sequence of events in this catastrophe.
I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut that the 'powers that be' don't want to stop this thing for the sake of some nefarious plan. Monumental catastrophes provide much opportunity to manipulate and take advantage of those who are NOT in power.

[TxAggie]

07:39 AM on 06/27/2010

We allow our government to be incompetent and we are then surprised how they perform. Remember the term "good enough for government work"? They don't even reach that low standard, if the gov't was even mediocre we we probably feel like we were getting our money's worth. We continue to send the same bozos back to Washington and then we are shocked with what they do. Unless we start sending the majority of those clowns to the house we will continue to have what we have now- incompetence.

[beartrack]

03:00 PM on 06/26/2010

Just another blowhard politician. There are no more vessels to send. Why ? Because, your MMS agency, under Bush appointed moles, did not require the oil industry to have any plans or equipment for emergencies like this. This is the first of what could be many of these disasters because the same rules are in place, and the same criminal Congressmen are still preventing safety regulation.

[SoCalHotOne]

02:40 AM on 06/27/2010

There are a lot more vessels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3qJaDbw5s8

[nexxtep54]

12:17 PM on 06/26/2010

What the f----? Someone thinking ahead ? Go figure.

More thinking ahead . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP8iN4ZX1JU&feature=channel

[rbryanh]

10:27 PM on 06/25/2010

I think we've reached a point in American history where it's virtually impossible to find a way to productively describe the behavior of our government and corporations and the relationship between the two. This is not because it's difficult to describe, but because doing so immediately gets one dismissed as a crackpot "conspiracy theorist."

That the fact that word "conspiracy" can't be used in the media without provoking snorts and eye rolling says a lot, all by itself. It's as though we've been taught to regard the notion that some people might join together to work against the common good as intrinsically insane.

History is crammed with examples - both brutal and subtle - of exploitation of the many by the few. Where did we get the idea that this is an absurd notion best kept under the tinfoil hats of lunatics?

What might we assume would be the result of a society unable to recognize that a few insanely greedy, shortsighted, destructive sociopaths had joined together to work for their own benefit with no regard for the general welfare? Or if, acknowledging the fact, a majority of citizens were still too demoralized to believe that any action they might take could every improve the situation?

Obviously, I think we're there. Sometimes I feel terribly clever. Mostly I feel like a paranoid, surrounded by a terrifying reality few others see.

So. Am I nuts?

[iridium species]

10:41 PM on 06/25/2010

You are a genius - FANNED.

[John Cunningham Bowler]

10:42 PM on 06/25/2010

You're not a conspiracy theorist for sure. Saying that the rich and powerful exploit the poor and powerless isn't a conspiracy theory. Such things depend on assumption that apparently powerless individuals are controlling the world simply by cooperating with other powerless individuals in an organized fashion.

That the rich and powerful conspire to main their wealth and power is something no one, other than the rich and powerful, would deny.

Of course calling these leaders of our nation, calling the people who claim to have made us all wealthy and to be acting in the finest principles of the declaration of independence 'sociopaths' is just calling a spade a spade. In other words, don't say it too loudly, one of them might hear.

[Richard729]

10:00 PM on 06/25/2010

That's all well and good to ask others to put their lives on the line when, not if, a major tropical storm or hurricane roars ashore. But, all due respect to Democrat Rep. Markey, he's not thinking straight. The strongest winds I've ever experienced on board a Coast Guard cutter in the Pacific were about 65 mph. I wouldn't demand that anyone put their lives in danger on skimmer ships or oil rigs when the wind reaches 130 mph or more - unless you want to die.

Congressman Markey stated, "I do believe that we should prepare for a worst-case scenario. We should assume that a tropical storm is going to come through the Gulf of Mexico and we should assume that we will need every single skimmer...which is available. That we will need every piece of boom domestically and internationally and we will need every piece of protective gear for the workers that are, that is available..."

What we don't need are thousands of well-meaning able-bodied people putting their healthand lives in harm's way and, by extension, the welfare of their families who need all the help they can get just to survive this horrible economy. Mr. Markey, stop sounding like Limbaugh!

The below link helps to explain exactly what to expect when the storms reach the Gulf and how a hurricane or tropical storm will affect the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/book_shelf/2076_hurricanes_oil.pdf

[Texanbybirth]

09:55 PM on 06/25/2010

Pretty good idea for day 66.

[GeoLee]

09:51 PM on 06/25/2010

You can bet Joe Barton could not think this clearly.

[msbeal]

09:46 PM on 06/25/2010

We need to put the blame squarely where it belongs..these anti-regulation Republicans gave us dead miners, collapsed economy and now environmental disaster. I can hardly wait for the next shoe to fall somewhere the anti-regulator-nistas have been.

[kelleyajones]

09:46 PM on 06/25/2010

Can we please revisit the moratorium?

[return of leroy]

09:29 PM on 06/25/2010

More Markey, less politics

lets cap it, clean it up, ensure all drilling is safe, hand out some serious jail time and THEN go back to politics

[TxAggie]

07:26 AM on 06/27/2010

You cannot separate Markey from politics- he is pure d politics at its worst.

[blackmouth]

09:22 PM on 06/25/2010

I'm for that, I think this is much worse than what we are watching.

[return of leroy]

09:28 PM on 06/25/2010

thats why i think it really IS that bad.

[Mort Twain]

08:56 PM on 06/25/2010

Thank you, Representative Markey for engaging your brain. The president, the candidate of change, doesn't seem comfortable pushing forward on any agenda with total aggressive determination. The sense that he doesn't ever seem fully engaged seems to be forming as his central characteristic. Meanwhile, the corporations who lay waste our Republic are totally engaged as oil pours onto our shores, bankers take huge bonuses, credit card companies double their usurious rates and the Depression deepens.

The 1930s had the Great Dust Bowl (DB) and we have the (BP) Gulf Oil Bowl; horrifying environmental scenarios, different names just to catch us "off guard" and in Bobby Jindal's case "off National Guard." As a nation, we are TDTS .... "Too Disengaged To Survive."

[StinkyBush]

09:17 PM on 06/25/2010

Nice post. Any relation to Samuel Langhorne Clemens?:)

[StinkyBush]

08:52 PM on 06/25/2010

Everyone needs to put the politics aside, including bashing the President. Rep. Merkley is correct that we need to put all resources available to cleanup this disaster caused by BP. Funny how a Congressman from Massachusetts is out in front of this while Congressmen/Congresswomen from the states that have been affected sit back and either blame the President or congratulate him on a job well done.

Regardless of what end of the political spectrum you are on, we need to get this gushing oil well stopped and we need to prevent further disaster of our environment.