Gulf Oilspill

Floor Speech

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, as we close in now on 2 months since the deep water explosion that set off the gulf oilspill, the toll of this disaster is continuing to mount--from the oil-soaked pelicans we see on the front cover of each newspaper everyday, to the tar balls that dot a previously pristine coastline, to the closed fishing grounds and half-empty hotels. The human impact is felt in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, throughout the gulf coast region. This disaster has reached into our economy, our environment, and the way we see our energy future. But there is one place it also threatens to reach and that is into our pocketbooks.

When it comes to BP's promises to cover all the costs associated with this disaster, I am sorry but I am not ready to take them for their word. That is because as a Senator from the Pacific Northwest, Washington State, I have seen firsthand what happens when big oil is allowed to make promises and not required to take action. When the Exxon Valdez oilspill happened in 1989--I remember it so well--that company assured the public that the economic and environmental damage would be paid for. Then I remember them fighting tooth and nail all the way to the Supreme Court, to deny fishermen and families from my home State the compensation they were due.

So I am not impressed by BP's promises and I am not ready to take the word of a company with a track record of pursuing profit over safety. Instead, I believe it is time for us to answer some very fundamental questions, such as who should be responsible to clean this up? Who is going to bear the burden of big oil's mistake? Should it be the taxpayers or families and small business owners who paid such a high price already or should it be the companies that are responsible for this spill, including BP, which, by the way, is a company that made a $6.1 billion profit in the first 3 months of this year alone?

I cosponsored the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act because the answer is clear. I believe BP needs to be held accountable for the environmental and economic damages of this spill and I am going to fight to make sure our taxpayers do not wind up losing a single dime to pay for this mess. To me, it is an issue of fairness. If an oil company causes a spill, they should be the one to clean it up, not our taxpayers. This bill eliminates the current $75 million cap on oil company liability so taxpayers will never be left holding the bag for big oil's mistakes. This is straightforward, common sense, and fair.

I have to say, I am extremely disappointed that this commonsense bill continues to be blocked by the Republicans every time we have tried to bring it up. But I want everyone to know I am going to keep fighting for the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act until we get it passed.

That alone is not enough in response. This week I also signed on to a letter to BP's CEO, asking them to back up the promises they are making to pay with action by requiring them to set up a $20 billion fund to begin covering the damages we will see.

It is also why I am working to make sure this never happens in any other part of our country. I have always been opposed to drilling off the coast of my
home State of Washington and this tragedy is just one more painful reminder of the potential consequences of opening the west coast to drilling. The economic and environmental devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster is still impacting people and families and businesses in my State. Washington State's coastal region supports over 150,000 jobs and it generates almost $10 billion in economic activity--all of which would be threatened if drilling were allowed to happen off our west coat.

I am going to keep fighting for legislation that bans drilling off the west coast and makes sure big oil companies are never allowed to roll the dice with Washington State's economy and environment.

We need to hold big oil accountable. We need to make sure that disasters such as this never happen again. We also need to remember the workers who were killed and injured in this horrific tragedy. We cannot forget that this is an issue that is larger than this one tragedy. The entire oil and gas industry has a deplorable record of worker and workplace safety. We have to make sure that every worker is treated properly and protected, and that companies that mistreat their workers are held accountable.

We know the oil industry is able to operate under stricter safety standards and regulations because they are already doing that--in Europe, in Australia, and even in Contra Costa County in California, where that county has a set of stricter guidelines that have reduced their injuries and fatality rates for their workers.

But we also know worker safety should not be measured just by injury rates. We should be working at reducing the dangerous conditions that exist such as fires and hazardous spills and release of toxic gases. When accidents do happen, we have to record them, learn from them, and build on a program to prevent them from ever happening again. We have to make sure our workers are treated with respect and their rights are protected. Like a lot of people, I was appalled last week to read reports in the Washington Post about BP's history of worker safety violations and numerous reports of worker intimidation. No workers should ever believe that reporting safety violations could endanger their job and no company should ever pursue its bottom line in a way that endangers its workers.

The Senate deserves answers from BP on worker safety conditions and how suppressing worker complaints could have contributed, actually, to this disaster. So I was extremely disappointed last week when I held a hearing in my subcommittee to examine worker safety issues in the oil and gas industry and representatives of BP failed to show up--failed to even show up.

Workers everywhere have to feel confident that their employers are putting their safety first and companies that betray that trust have to be held accountable. I am going to keep working to make sure that happens. I look forward to having future hearings that I hope BP will come to in the coming weeks so we can get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, I am going to continue fighting to keep drilling away from the Washington State coastline and I am going to keep pushing to make sure our taxpayers do not have to pay for the mistakes big oil makes.

I yield the floor.

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