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The AP previews BP CEO Tony Hayward’s testimony today on Capitol Hill. “BP chief executive Tony Hayward has said famously that he’d like his life back. First, he’ll need to survive a congressional hearing that some are describing along the lines of a public execution. ‘[I expect him to be sliced and diced,’ said Representative Bart Stupak, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations, which hauls the British executive in for a hearing/flaying today. Here’s advice from a Washington lawyer, Stan Brand, who specializes in criminal law and Congress: ‘Put on your asbestos suit and get ready.’ … Stupak stressed that the carving up of Hayward he envisions has a larger purpose: to come up with a legislative proposal to prevent such accidents in the future.”
“In his first appearance before a Congressional panel Thursday, embattled BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward is expected to apologize for the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and outline the extent to which his company is going to plug the leak and clean up the environmental mess,” Roll Call says, adding, “In the remarks provided in advance to reporters, Hayward opens with a contrite tone, saying that the explosion and resulting spill ‘never should have happened -- and I am deeply sorry that they did.’ Hayward will say he fully grasps ‘the terrible reality of the situation’ and was ‘personally devastated’ when he learned that 11 men died on the Deepwater Horizon rig.”
Roll Call also has this headline: “Obama’s Bipartisan Hopes Rest on Scott Brown.”
“Need a lift? Try calling Sen. Dianne Feinstein,” Roll Call writes. “The California Democrat offered seats on her private flights home to at least three of her colleagues in 2009, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), according to their annual financial reports. Both the House and the Senate released Members’ yearly financial disclosures on Wednesday, providing an overview of their individual holdings and debts for calendar year 2009, as well as a plethora of quirky details.”
Familiar sentence? “Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on Wednesday defended a colleague who is involved in an ethics controversy,” The Hill writes. “They also expressed concern about how the House Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) is operating, making their case for changes to the lower chamber’s ethics process. CBC lawmakers say Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.), one of eight lawmakers the OCE is scrutinizing information on, has been a leader on ethics-related issues. The OCE is scrutinizing an amendment to the financial regulatory reform bill that passed the House last year, The Hill reported Wednesday. Watt offered the amendment and then withdrew it within two days of a fundraiser held in his honor, according to a review of public documents.”
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I hope this is not another Congressional dog and pony show where they grill Tony Baloney Hayward yet in the end do nothing to fix the problem of overly lax safety procedures and equipment in the offshore oil drilling industry. Too often the hype prior to the grilling is far more than the actual event.
I think it'd be more effective if there weren't cameras present. That way the reps wouldn't have to get up on their soap boxes and pontificate. As it is, accusations are hurled in lieu of questions being asked.
Eric and Ursula
Both of you make good points. I like to think that this is so big that safety procedure and better equipment will certainly be implemented. If DC drags it's feet on getting the obvious problems with deep water drilling fixed it will most definitely have an impact on my vote for potus.
This hopefully will also be a huge boost for a new energy tech boom.
I was listening to NPR this morning and heard about potential plans to 'redo' the lower Mississippi river. It would be billions of dollars and thousands of jobs and could be really helped by BP cash. I think its a fantastic idea that has been a LONG time coming. It would recapture the millions of tons of rich Midwestern silt and put it into the marshes as the river once did naturally. It would grow the marshes which are disappearing at a rate of almost 2 football fields per hour. Insane, eh?
Anita, I found another article this morning from NYT and it supports my great distrust of the oil industry even though BP pony'ed up the funds (with some apparent strong arming from our VP). Here is a quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html
They have no voice there. Our press can sometimes be a bunch of @!$%#s but I'm glad we have them. But, this is what Big Oil would be doing to us if they could.
I'm not defending Hayward, I'm not, but he didn't make the decision to cut corners either on the rig. Yes BP needs to be held accountable, and this guy is a joke, but Congress needs to have inquiries into TransOcean, and their cupability in this mess and yes Haliburton as well for cementing that was shoddily done.
Let's back up a second M.Fisher. The billions of dollars in the BP account are to pay to cure problems created by the oil spill, not to correct deficiencies in the lower Mississippi delta, nor to repair issues that years of erosion have created.
This fund isn't for anyone's pet projects, neither Republican, nor Democrat. It has a specific focus, and any diversion of funds from that focus will inevitably be decried (and rightly) as mismanagement, or yet another governmental fiasco. I'm not sure if you're suggesting the funds be used that way, but that's how it sounds. If the government wants to do this, they need to use funds other than the BP escrow account, and make provisions for it in a spending bill. Perhaps they could put it into a jobs bill, that would certainly make sense to me.
And, perhaps at the end of the grilling, BP could question the congressmen about how much they have profited personally from their BP stock...
OH yea! Sweet...
Phillip, you must've read my post from yesterday, because I stated that fact.
I really hope some stricter regulations come into play after this disgrace, otherwise, it will be an insult to the families that have lost a love one while working to supply our energy needs. I hope that Congress doesn't hold anything back when they are questioning him. And, as for Tony Hayward...All I can tell you is you better have on 20 pairs of wrought iron, titanium blended draws on, because your ass is about to be stewed, chewed, and barbecued.
Was me or did not appear as if he was smirking during this big waste of time. He stone-walled everyone even when confronted w/ proof of malfeasance. As long as there is no cap on this escrow fund, and more monies will be applied to those who's means of living have now been destroyed, I'm content to see what happens next. Oh one last thing, shame on the Republican for taking BP's side in this. Barton and bat-@!$%# Bachmann think making BP pay is so bad. If Democrats had any balls, they would use this against them, but we all know they don't like to get dirty that way