[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10694]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         WE HAVE TO HOLD BP ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  (Mr. BRALEY of Iowa asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BRALEY of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, a week ago I was in Chalmette, 
Louisiana, for a field hearing on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil 
disaster. We heard compelling testimony from people whose lives have 
been devastated, including two of the widows who lost their husbands on 
that explosion on the rig. We also flew out over the site of that 
disaster, and as they opened up the rear hatch on the plane, you could 
see the burn-off from the relief wells being drilled, and you could 
smell the overpowering stench of oil coming off the water.
  Well, our friends on the other side like to take a position that 
government should be hands off when it comes to business development, 
and BP is teaching us that we can't afford to let businesses 
misrepresent to this country what they're planning to do the way BP did 
when they knew that there was a 99 percent chance of a blowout during 
the 40-year period of this lease and still got a waiver from any deep, 
intensive environmental impact analysis before that well was explored.
  We have to hold this company accountable for the American people, the 
American taxpayers.
  They created this problem. This is what happens when we stay hands 
off and don't keep people accountable for their conduct.

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