CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript

Interview

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BLITZER: The attorney general of the United States, Eric Holder, announcing this week, a criminal probe into the Gulf Coast oil disaster. I asked the chairman of the Congressional Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Massachusetts' Democrat Ed Markey, whether there is any evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this point.

REP. ED MARKEY, (D-MA), CHAIRMAN, SELECT CMTE. ENERGY IND. & GLOBAL WARMING: I think that there's enough evidence, for sure, to justify the opening of a criminal investigation.

BLITZER: Who potentially broke the law?

MARKEY: Well, first of all, BP said they had the capacity to deal with a spill that would be 250,000 barrels per day. Initially, they said that this spill was only 1,000 barrels a day. Then they upped it to 5,000 barrels per day.

BLITZER: But is that a criminal act, do you think, potentially?

MARKEY: We could go all the way down the line and spend the whole day going through the litany of things that have been identified that BP represented they could do, but they did not do. It begins with them certifying that the rig could not sink. And it goes right through all of the rest of the assertions made by BP. So it turns out -

BLITZER: So, you think BP was negligent?

MARKEY: At a minimum, they're negligence.

BLITZER: Was the regulatory agency that is supposed to supervise offshore oil drilling negligent?

MARKEY: I think there was a ticking time bomb that was allowed to be placed out in the middle of the ocean. I do believe that MMS did not do its job.

BLITZER: That is the agency of the Department of Interior. MARKEY: The agency responsible.

BLITZER: Should heads roll-one head has already rolled there. Should other heads roll? The secretary of the Interior, Secretary Salazar, for example. Should he stay on the job?

MARKEY: Yes, he should stay on the job. But I think this goes back to the "drill, baby, drill" era of the Bush administration. This is a time bomb that was set a long -- in the -- in the distant past.

BLITZER: Because you know the Obama administration had a year-and-a- half to clean it up.

MARKEY: I know that. But they did not actually put their person on the job until July of 2009. So most of decisions were made long ago, and far away, as part of a cozy relationship between BP and other oil companies, and MMS. And we're now beginning to see, unfortunately, the consequences of that.

BLITZER: BP put out a statement saying BP will cooperate with any inquiry the Department of Justice will undertake, just as we are doing in response to the inquiries that are already ongoing. You've got your own congressional investigation into this. Are they fully cooperating with your committee?

MARKEY: I think that there's a -- there's still a lot of denial on the part of BP . For example, just two days ago, Tony Hayward, the CEO, said that there was no evidence of any underwater plumes in the ocean. When, in fact, independent scientists at the University of South Florida, the University of Southern Mississippi, have identified those plumes. Again, in each instance, unfortunately, and increasingly, BP is more interested in their own liability than they are in the livability of the Gulf of Mexico, and we have to keep that in mind every day for the rest of this summer.

BLITZER: Let me see if you agree with Robert Reich, the former Labor secretary, during the Clinton administration, a man you know. He says this. He says, "It's time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP's operations in the Gulf of Mexico, until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public will know what's going on. Do you agree with Secretary Reich?

MARKEY: Well, BP is not going into bankruptcy. It's not General Motors. For all intents and purposes, right now, the federal government is in the room on every decision that is being made by BP.

BLITZER: Should they take charge, though?

MARKEY: They are in charge. There is no decision which is now being made that isn't being supervised by Secretary-

BLITZER: Do you want them to go further?

MARKEY: I think that we're in charge right now. I mean, the president doesn't have a magic wand in order to cure all of the problems that were created by BP. But in terms of going forward and the way it's been for the last month, the federal government is in the room, supervising BP, making sure that all decisions are made in the public interest.

Credibility and competence of BP is in serious question. And as a result, the Obama administration has guaranteed and is on the job making sure that all decisions are made in the public interest and not in the private interests of BP.

BLITZER: But the federal government needs BP, because they have the expertise, which the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, the Pentagon, they don't have that expertise.

MARKEY: It's BP's spill. It is BP's equipment. But it's the ocean of the United States' government.

BLITZER: But the federal government says --

(CROSS TALK)

BLITZER: The federal government says they can't do it, they need BP.

MARKEY: And the people of our nation, so that's why our government has to be in the room with this private company, in order to make sure that the only decisions that are made are totally in the public interest and not in the interest of a private corporation that has caused this historic spill.

BLITZER: BP sent e-mails in March to the government agency, the Minerals Management Services in the Department of the Interior, saying they were worried about this well. Did the federal government do anything when they expressed their concern?

MARKEY: That's what an investigation is going to have to determine. That's why we're going to have to have every single aspect of this understood, not just in the preceding month, but going all the way back two, three years ago, when decisions were made with regard to what kind of in-depth safety precautions had to be put in place in order to avoid a catastrophic accident.

BLITZER: Congressman Markey, thanks for coming in.

MARKEY: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

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