[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10060]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             GULF OILSPILL

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I had the good fortune of having been put 
on the Environment and Public Works Committee from the first day I came 
to the Senate. It has been a great experience to serve on that 
committee. I have served under Chairman Chafee, Chairman Moynihan, and 
Chairman Baucus. Some remember I gave up my chairmanship for Jim 
Jeffords from Vermont. The committee is terrific. I love the 
jurisdictional swing that committee has.
  As a result of this background, I have watched the oilspill in the 
gulf very closely. But I say to everyone within the sound of my voice, 
you do not have to have longstanding experience on the Environment and 
Public Works Committee to understand how terrible this has been to the 
environment. We do not know the outcome of the degradation to our 
environment as a result of this tragedy, and that is what it is. The 
Coast Guard admiral who is in charge has indicated there is no longer a 
plume. There is oil going in different places. Remember, the oil well 
is a mile below the surface of the ocean. So there are tar balls, 
sheets of oil for hundreds and hundreds of miles. Sadly, the worst is 
probably yet to come.
  The one thing we tend not to focus on very much is the loss of life. 
Of course, we see the dead animals, and that is tragic. It is so sad. A 
pelican is an animal. It is not on the endangered species list. We took 
it off that list in the last year or so. Now these animals are dying by 
the dozens every day.
  What we do not focus on as a result of the negligence--gross 
negligence-- perhaps criminal acts of BP is that 11 people are dead; 11 
people were killed. That seems to be overshadowed a lot of times. 
Eleven people are dead. Brothers, fathers, and sons were killed on the 
night of that terrific explosion. I hope we do not, in spite of the 
horrible conditions that have been caused to our environment, lose 
track of the fact that this is a personal tragedy for lots of people. 
Eleven people were killed and many others were injured. The American 
people are going to have to not forget the personal tragedies of these 
people who were lost. I am sure they will not.
  I thought it important this morning to remind everyone that this is 
certainly an environmental disaster. But for the persons involved as a 
result of the cutting of corners that BP did--it is not just me 
talking. We see it on TV shows and the evidence is coming in. I talked 
with one oil executive over the weekend, and he is flabbergasted. He is 
flabbergasted as to what had taken place. There was no redundancy. This 
company simply did not follow rules that are in place to prevent things 
like this from happening.

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