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Oil company executives gathered on Capitol Hill on Tuesday at a Congressional hearing to discuss offshore drilling and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Leaders from ExxonMobil, Shell, Conoco-Phillips, and Chevron sat next to Lamar McKay, head of BP America, but they answered questions with the intention of isolating BP. They agreed that the Deepwater Horizon blowup and subsequent oil spill likely would not have happened had BP followed industry-standard safety practices. And they agreed that those industry-standard safety practices are comprehensive and reliable.
Some of those running the hearing, however, wanted the discussion to move beyond BP, and on to the oil industry in general. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), for example:
"These oil companies before us today amassed nearly $289 billion in profits over the last three years. They spent $39 billion to explore for new gas and oil. Yet the average investment in research and development for safety, accident prevention and spill response was a paltry $20 million per year."
President Obama addresses the nation at 8:00 EST tonight. It will be fascinating to see if he too expresses disappointment with the oil industry as a whole as he makes a case for comprehensive energy legislation that would reduce the nation’s dependence on oil.
