[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10629-10630]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GULF VISIT

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, this past Friday I had the opportunity to 
travel to the Gulf of Mexico along with three of our colleagues, 
including Senator Mikulski, my colleague from Maryland, Senator Vitter 
from Louisiana, and Senator Merkley from Florida. All of us know the 
importance of coasts. We represent coastal States, and we know how 
important it is to our economy, and we know how important it is to our 
way of life. I know Senator Vitter represents that area.
  We wanted to visit and see firsthand the impact the BP oilspill is 
having on the communities in the Gulf of Mexico. I must tell my 
colleagues, seeing it firsthand, one can really start to understand the 
magnitude of this disaster. One can see the horrific impact it is 
having on the people of that region, and one can see the anger in their 
eyes and the desperation of people who are no longer working, and one 
can see the oil. You can see the oil all over. You can see it in the 
water. You see it in the marshes. You see it on the coast. It is a 
horrible thing to see.
  We visited the area known as the Grand Isles. The Grand Isles is a 
beach area not too far from New Orleans. Grand Isles is a beach 
community. It is a city. It reminds me a little bit of Ocean City, MD. 
I was just thinking of how the people of Maryland would be responding 
if they knew Ocean City would not be open for the season. When we saw 
the area of Grand Isles, it was empty. No one was on the beaches. There 
were some people on the beaches working, cleaning up, but no tourists, 
no people, no children enjoying the water. You couldn't go into the 
water. The disaster is having a horrible impact on the economy of not 
just Grand Isles but the entire region.
  We then had a chance to go by boat to see Queen Bess Island and 
Pelican or Bird Island, which are two of the major islands that are 
used by birds for nesting. We saw oil. We saw oil on the booms that had 
been deployed. We saw oil on the rocks on the island itself, and, more 
tragically, we saw birds that were covered with oil. This should never 
have happened.
  I think it just strengthened our resolve about the priorities we must 
have in this Senate, the priorities that government must follow. The 
first, of course, is to stop the flow at the wellhead because oil is 
gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico. What we saw, of course, is oil 
that had been in the water for many days, had degraded but was still 
guck and still deadly to birds and certainly deadly to the economy of 
the region. But oil is still coming out at the wellhead.
  Let me remind my colleagues that BP has tried many ways of stopping 
that oil from coming into the gulf. Of course, as the Presiding Officer 
knows from the hearings we have had in the Environment and Public Works 
Committee, BP said they had proven technology to deal with any of these 
types of spills. Well, that proven technology doesn't exist. They are 
trying to on the fly determine how to deal with the oil.
  So now they have a process of capturing the oil that will bring in 
18,000 barrels a day. Remember, BP said originally it was a 1-barrel-a-
day incident, and then they increased it to 5,000 barrels a day. We now 
know it is closer to 40,000 barrels a day. The technology they are 
deploying will recover about 18,000 barrels.
  They hope to be able to increase that perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 
barrels, still leaving tens of thousands of barrels gushing into the 
Gulf of Mexico, and it will continue for several months until the 
relief wells are drilled. That is the current status.
  Our priority, of course, is to stop the wellhead but also to contain 
the damages. Oil appears sometimes unexpectedly at different locations. 
So the game plan has to use the best technologies we have with booms 
and skimmers to keep the oil from reaching sensitive areas.
  Admiral Watson, the Coast Guard Command, reviewed the strategy with 
us. While we think it is important for the command to set performance 
standards for BP across the board, we also think we have to have the 
right organizational structure.
  Let me just mention one point that was troubling to us. Yes, we saw 
booms that had been deployed, but they were not maintained. If they are 
not maintained, oil gets to the shore, killing birds and killing our 
environment. We have to make sure that is corrected. I thank Admiral 
Watson. He got back to me Saturday night. We had a conversation, along 
with Senator Boxer, and steps are being changed. That is why we have to 
have performance standards on BP oil. We have to make sure we are in 
control, as to making sure all technologies are deployed to protect our 
environment. Then, yes, we have to hold BP fully accountable for all of 
the damages.
  We all talk about how they have to be fully accountable. But let's 
remind the public that BP, in getting the permit to drill, said they 
had proven technology to deal with any type of incident. They were not 
truthful on that statement. They didn't have that. So they have to be 
held fully accountable. We are talking about criminal investigations 
that will go where they may. But they clearly have to pay all of the 
economic and environmental damages. The economic damages are clear. We 
have talked to fishermen who aren't fishing this season, and they don't 
know if they will ever go back to fishing. We talked to one fisherman 
whose family has been in that business for generations. We talked to 
shop owners where there was nobody in the shop. We saw charter boat 
owners who cannot operate. BP has to be accountable to these small 
business owners and the property owners.
  I strongly support the effort of our majority leader and the 
President to have BP put money into a trust fund, with independent 
trustees, so we can

[[Page 10630]]

expedite the process. It doesn't do a business owner any good if he has 
a long list of documents he has to fill out to get the help he needs in 
order to keep his business afloat. Those who were victimized need to be 
able to get relief as soon as possible. I think an escrow fund makes a 
lot of sense, and $20 billion seems like a reasonable start. I hope we 
will move forward. I know the President is meeting with the CEO of BP 
Oil on Wednesday. Tomorrow, I hope that will lead to the resolution of 
that issue.
  Let me point out that BP also has to be held responsible for the 
environmental damages that will go well beyond the Gulf of Mexico. The 
Loop Current is bringing the oil around the Keys and to the east coast 
of the United States. It will affect many regions, including mine in 
the Mid-Atlantic. Many of our migratory wildlife travel through the 
gulf. We don't know whether they will be returning to Maryland. We 
don't know the impact it will have on our wildlife population--those 
who enjoy hunting and bird watching on the Eastern Shore, those who 
understand the importance of the diversity of our wildlife--whether we 
will be endangering different species. We need to document that and 
mitigate it.
  I have the honor of chairing the Water and Wildlife Subcommittee of 
the Environment and Public Works Committee. We are holding hearings, 
thanks to Senator Boxer, next month to start the accounting process, to 
make sure there is an independent, objective accounting as to the full 
damages that BP has caused and its related organization--economic 
damages and environmental damages. Then, going forward with drilling, 
we all understand mineral management is a critical part of our energy 
strategy. We cannot drill unless we have an independent agency issuing 
the permits. We have to make sure the public's interest is protected as 
new permits are granted.
  Yes, there are areas where we don't drill today because they are 
environmentally too sensitive and there is not enough oil to make it 
worth the risk. I include in that the area I represent in the Mid-
Atlantic, where there was a site they were going to move forward with 
drilling just 50 miles from Assateague Island, just 60 miles from the 
mouth of the Chesapeake. If we would have had a spill a fraction of the 
amount that occurred in the gulf, with the prevailing winds and 
currents, it would have a devastating impact on the Chesapeake Bay and 
the beaches of Maryland and also Delaware and Virginia. It is not worth 
the risk. The oil is not significant enough there for that.
  Lastly, I hope we use this opportunity, as President Obama suggested, 
to move forward with a new energy policy for our country. We need to 
rely less on oil and more on alternative and renewable energy sources. 
I agree we need to do more with nuclear power. We need to consume less 
energy and improve the way we operate our buildings and the way we 
manage our transportation systems. We need to become energy 
independent, and we can do that. But we cannot do it through drilling. 
We can do it through a comprehensive energy policy so we can protect 
our national security and create jobs in America rather than exporting 
those jobs overseas and, yes, so that we can protect our environment 
from the type of disaster that has occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. I 
hope that is how we respond.
  My trip to the gulf reinforced my efforts, and I hope the efforts of 
all my colleagues, to say that we can do things better. Let's clean up 
this mess, let's hold BP responsible, and let's develop an energy 
policy that will protect America's security, help our economy, and 
protect our environment.
  With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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