[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 87 (Thursday, June 10, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H4370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            BP REFUSING TO PROVIDE CRITICAL DATA AND SAMPLES

  (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, it's been more than 30 days since the 
Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. In that time, at 
least 40 million gallons of oil have entered our oceans. To give you 
some idea what this means for the gulf coast, if the oil disaster was 
centered in my district, it would completely cover New York City, Long 
Island, Connecticut, and northern New Jersey, and far more in the east 
and the west.
  With a disaster of this enormous magnitude, it's absolutely critical 
we know everything we can about the oil, its scope and its effect on 
the Gulf of Mexico. But according to recent reports, BP is refusing to 
provide critical samples and data to scientists studying the disaster. 
Scientists researching the vast underwater damage of the oil spill have 
been denied oil samples from BP. Other scientists studying the flow 
rate at the source of the oil haven't received high quality video they 
requested from BP's underwater robots. Still more researchers have 
asked for, but not received, access to much-needed data to study oil 
plumes beneath the surface of the ocean.
  It is imperative for BP to give scientists inside and outside of 
government access to every sample, every data point, and every other 
resource they need to help us understand the truth about BP's oil 
disaster. The American people have a right to know.

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