BP oil spill commission taking case for industry reform to Congress
The leaders of President Obama's national commission on the BP oil spill will be in Washington tomorrow testifying about their findings to key House and Senate committees -- and one of those leaders was in North Carolina yesterday delivering a preview of their message.
William K. Reilly, a Republican who co-chairs the commission with former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), spoke about the findings of the commission's 380-page final report Monday at Duke University in Durham, N.C. The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under George H.W. Bush and president of the World Wildlife Fund, Reilly now heads the private equity firm Aqua Partners International and serves on the board of several corporations, including the Houston-based oil company ConocoPhillips. He also chairs the advisory board for Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, which assisted the commission's work on Gulf restoration.
Reilly confessed that he started his work on the commission with prejudice, thinking the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster was likely the result of an isolated screw-up by BP given the company's troubled safety history. But the commission instead found that the disaster was the consequence of what Reilly repeatedly criticized as the oil industry's "culture of complacency."
"We have just paid a huge price for the inattention and complacency," he said.
Reilly pointed to nine critical decisions the commission identified that BP, rig operator Transocean and cement services provider Halliburton made in the run-up to the blast that killed 11 workers and resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Seven of the nine decisions were made to save time, he observed.
"This was not the blunder of a rogue company but the seriously faulty decisions of three," he said.
Reilly also cited serious failures by the federal government, noting the Interior Department that oversees offshore drilling has a history of failing to take science into account when making decisions. He also faulted the Obama administration for failing to address serious regulatory problems before the spill. Reilly said he would give the administration an F leading up to the disaster and a D for the first month of the spill when it grossly underestimated the oil flow rate. But he said that in the end he would give the administration an A for successfully bringing the country together to address the disaster.
The commission has called for 80 percent of what's expected to be tens of billions of dollars in fines assessed against the companies involved to go toward Gulf restoration efforts. While acknowledging that this may spark resistance from non-Gulf states, Reilly is cautiously optimistic that Congress will embrace that recommendation. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) have introduced legislation to turn the proposal into law.
Reilly and Graham will testify tomorrow before the House Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where they will reiterate their call for Congress to create an independent agency to oversee offshore drilling within the Interior Department and to boost funding for oil industry regulatory efforts. Asked for his thoughts about how Congress will respond to the commission's findings, Reilly was hopeful.
"I think the country will be disappointed -- certainly the 10 senators representing the five Gulf states will be -- if there's not a response to this," he said.
But if Congress does fail to act, Reilly said, that only strengthens the commission's argument that the oil and gas industry should create a safety institute comparable to the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations created in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster.
"It's a hopeful process we went through," Reilly said in conclusion. "We hope it could be a model for other policy challenges."
William K. Reilly, a Republican who co-chairs the commission with former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), spoke about the findings of the commission's 380-page final report Monday at Duke University in Durham, N.C. The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under George H.W. Bush and president of the World Wildlife Fund, Reilly now heads the private equity firm Aqua Partners International and serves on the board of several corporations, including the Houston-based oil company ConocoPhillips. He also chairs the advisory board for Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, which assisted the commission's work on Gulf restoration.
Reilly confessed that he started his work on the commission with prejudice, thinking the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster was likely the result of an isolated screw-up by BP given the company's troubled safety history. But the commission instead found that the disaster was the consequence of what Reilly repeatedly criticized as the oil industry's "culture of complacency."
"We have just paid a huge price for the inattention and complacency," he said.
Reilly pointed to nine critical decisions the commission identified that BP, rig operator Transocean and cement services provider Halliburton made in the run-up to the blast that killed 11 workers and resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Seven of the nine decisions were made to save time, he observed.
"This was not the blunder of a rogue company but the seriously faulty decisions of three," he said.
Reilly also cited serious failures by the federal government, noting the Interior Department that oversees offshore drilling has a history of failing to take science into account when making decisions. He also faulted the Obama administration for failing to address serious regulatory problems before the spill. Reilly said he would give the administration an F leading up to the disaster and a D for the first month of the spill when it grossly underestimated the oil flow rate. But he said that in the end he would give the administration an A for successfully bringing the country together to address the disaster.
The commission has called for 80 percent of what's expected to be tens of billions of dollars in fines assessed against the companies involved to go toward Gulf restoration efforts. While acknowledging that this may spark resistance from non-Gulf states, Reilly is cautiously optimistic that Congress will embrace that recommendation. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) have introduced legislation to turn the proposal into law.
Reilly and Graham will testify tomorrow before the House Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where they will reiterate their call for Congress to create an independent agency to oversee offshore drilling within the Interior Department and to boost funding for oil industry regulatory efforts. Asked for his thoughts about how Congress will respond to the commission's findings, Reilly was hopeful.
"I think the country will be disappointed -- certainly the 10 senators representing the five Gulf states will be -- if there's not a response to this," he said.
But if Congress does fail to act, Reilly said, that only strengthens the commission's argument that the oil and gas industry should create a safety institute comparable to the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations created in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster.
"It's a hopeful process we went through," Reilly said in conclusion. "We hope it could be a model for other policy challenges."
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.