[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10802-10803]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      AGGRESSIVE OILSPILL RESPONSE

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, America is facing a catastrophe in the 
gulf. I rise today to speak about the President's address to our Nation 
last night and my recent trip to the gulf.
  I agree with the President that BP must stop the leak, clean up the 
oil, and end the economic hurricane they have caused on the gulf coast. 
I agree that BP--not the taxpayers--must be liable for costs of 
cleaning up the mess, for compensating businesses, fisherman and 
families, and for their economic losses. BP must set aside a fund of 
$20 billion or more today that they don't control to pay all economic 
claims in a fair and timely way.
  I like that the President focused on the Nation's long range energy 
needs. We do need to move our energy policy forward. And I am so 
pleased the President picked Dr. Don Boesch for the new National 
Commission to prevent and respond to future spills like this one. Dr. 
Boesch has strong ties to Maryland. He has been president of UMD Center 
for Environmental Science since 1990 and serves as Governor O'Malley's 
science adviser. He's also a man of Louisiana, born in New Orleans and 
a graduate of Tulane. He knows the issues of Louisiana and he's got a 
special place in his heart in looking out for Maryland.
  I also agree with Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, 
LA. He believes we should bring every asset we have to fight this 
thing. The people of Louisiana need to see more action on the ground 
and we can't just rely on BP's word to get the job done.
  We need to organize and mobilize our own government. Right now we are 
acting like a bureaucracy rather than a fighting force to protect the 
beaches and the people from the consequences of the oilspill. I hope in 
the coming days, the President will insist on defining what success is.
  This administration needs goals and metrics for shore clean up that 
will be adequate. They must establish a mechanism for monitoring, 
oversight and relentless follow-through. Right now, no one but BP knows 
what is going on. There has been a lot of reporting on inputs--but not 
enough on outcomes. We need structure for oversight and we need to know 
the outcomes of our actions.
  The President also needs to insist on expediting permits. When I was 
on the gulf coast last week, I heard from locals that their ideas on 
how to protect coasts are stuck in bureaucracy. We need to unstick the 
bureaucracy. This is a national emergency that needs an aggressive 
national response. We are all in this together.
  I went to the gulf coast as chair of the Commerce, Justice, Science 
Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. NOAA is in the gulf right now telling 
us where this oil is going, helping to cleanup the shores and marshes 
and assisting fishermen who are hurting.
  I also went as the Senator from Maryland. I wanted to talk to 
scientists first hand to find out how the spill could impact Maryland. 
Will it affect our beaches and treasured Chesapeake Bay?
  Last week, I saw the catastrophe in the gulf. We met the people, we 
saw the beaches, and we saw the impact on the wildlife. And everywhere 
we went, we saw oil and the consequences of oil. I spoke to people 
whose livelihoods depend on the gulf. When we talk about what we saw--
words like ``Louisiana,'' ``Grand Isle'' and ``Pelican Island''--I also 
think of words like ``Ocean City'' and ``Assateague,'' Maryland's own 
barrier island. What we saw was the good, the bad, and the ugly.
  First, we met with the people, and I saw just how resilient they are. 
They have real grit and are determined to do something to save their 
communities. We coastal people need to be on their side. We saw 
communities where they would ordinarily have thousands of visitors with 
busy fishing charters. Now, it's like a ghost land. The beach looked 
more like a military base than an ocean resort, with trucks going up 
and down, carrying booms and all kinds of response equipment. And when 
you go out to sea, on a boat or in a helicopter, you see this oil 
creeping closer and closer to the shoreline. We are concerned about the 
environmental impact, but we are also concerned about the human impact 
on lives, livelihoods, and safety.
  Next, we asked--is the oil going to come up the east coast in this 
so-called ``loop current or loop stream?'' We were told the beaches of 
Ocean City will be safe. Even in the worst case scenario, the oil won't 
get beyond the Carolinas. Second, we were told that the seafood is 
safe. It is being inspected locally by NOAA and the FDA, so what is 
coming to the American marketplace is safe. That's what we were told, 
but I believe what Ronald Reagan said: ``Trust, but verify.''
  Maryland's economy is tied to the Louisiana economy. Our seafood 
restaurants and markets rely on what's caught in the gulf. I am holding 
a Maryland delegation meeting to make sure that we bring in ocean 
scientists and seafood inspectors to verify that

[[Page 10803]]

our Atlantic coast beaches and our Chesapeake Bay will stay oil free 
and our seafood will be safe to eat.
  That was the good news. The bad news is BP. The BP people have to fix 
this. BP is cutting corners, minimizing the situation, and now here we 
are. The oil will continue to gush, and it will gush until August. But 
the oil coming out of the well will take 6 weeks to get to shore, so we 
are going to feel all of this well into September. And that is the best 
case scenario.
  I support our President in calling for an escrow account for BP to 
put $20 billion aside for economic damages. I fear the hoarders will 
take charge. I fear BP will file for bankruptcy and will want the 
taxpayers to bail them out. The American taxpayer will not bail out the 
oil companies. The oil companies must put aside the money to pay 
damages and cleanup costs.
  Our own bureaucracy needs reform. We saw the can-do spirit there 
among the people, but the permit process is slow--whether it is the 
EPA, Corps of Engineers or NOAA. This needs to be reformed. And this 
stuff, called dispersant sounds like if you pour chemicals on the oil 
the oil will disburse and everything's fine. I am concerned that 
dispersants could be causing more problems than they are solving. I am 
concerned about the toxic impact on human beings and marine life 
creating dead zones off the coast of Louisiana.
  That is why I plan to hold a hearing. To learn more about the effects 
of these dispersants--what do we already know, what do we need to know, 
and what research needs to be done--because I don't want dispersants to 
turn out to be the DDT or Agent Orange of the oilspill. It is our job 
in Congress to push the bureaucracy, to push BP to get the job done and 
protect the American people.
  Then, we saw the ugly. The so-called protective booms were 
dysfunctional and in disarray, saturated with sticky smelly oil that 
had been there for days and no one had come to pick them up or clean 
them up. They were breaking loose and some washed up in marshes, 
causing far more damage than the oil. If they couldn't protect the few 
miles around the pelicans areas, how can they protect the beaches? They 
have got to do a lot better job. It took four Senators going to 
Louisiana to get the booms cleaned up near Grand Isle.
  There are no performance standards to make sure BP or the government 
are doing what they say they are doing and that it is working. There 
must be relentless follow-through by the government. The Coast Guard is 
treating BP as if it were another government agency, when the Coast 
Guard needs to take BP to task. They need to make sure that they have 
performance standards and they need to make sure that there is follow-
through.
  After witnessing the catastrophe in the gulf and seeing the way the 
oil is impacting the people, the communities, and the environment, I am 
so glad that we in Maryland opposed offshore drilling. No matter what 
is the energy policy I will always oppose offshore drilling off of the 
Mid-Atlantic coast. We can never let what's happening in the gulf 
happen to any other communities.
  Our first responsibility will be to the Nation's taxpayers, not to 
the oil companies. Our second responsibility is to the people of the 
gulf, to do all we can to protect them. We need to make sure that we 
contain the oil and can clean it up so they can get on with their lives 
and their livelihoods.
  I was honored to be able to go and represent Marylanders there 
because we are coastal people too. When I talked to the people down 
there who fish and crab, we talked about how we use the same kind of 
bait, we use the same kind of line, the same kind of ways. We cook them 
a little bit different--but we eat them all the same. And when they 
held our hands, they said when you go back to Maryland and Washington, 
don't ever forget us. And we won't. We are all Americans, we are all 
coastal people, and we are all in this together.

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