WASHINGTON – William K. Reilly, Co-Chair of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, told a Washington hearing today that April’s BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a systemic problem. “The oil spill represents a systemic problem which needs a systemic solution,” Reilly said at the 5th hearing of the Presidentially-appointed Commission. The former EPA Administrator said the government challenge to respond is really serious and he urged the oil industry to support full funding of the reorganized federal agency which oversees deepwater drilling. Reilly also said that an industry organization should be created to focus on identifying solutions to prevent future oil spills.
Former U.S. Senator Bob Graham, Co-Chair of the Oil Spill Commission, said that most of the oil disaster problems were a result of a lack of communication between the contractor and the subcontractors managing the Deepwater Horizon operation. “There were a series of almost inexplicable failures in the hours leading up to the disaster,” the popular former two-term Florida Governor said.
Graham and Reilly were joined at the two day hearing by fellow Commission members Frances Beinecke, Donald Boesch, Terry Garcia, Cherryl Murray, and Frances Ulmer.
Witnesses during the final session of the hearing included Rex Tillerson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ExxonMobil, and Marvin Odum, President of Shell Oil Company. Tillerson said that deepwater oil drilling would expand in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere and noted his company’s participation in a $1 billion rapid oil spill response industry consortium.
Defense
Energy
Homeland Security
Gulf Coast
Disaster Response
Clean Technology