MSNBC "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

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REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Thanks for having me.

OLBERMANN: "Think Progress" has a scorecard on the three judges from the 5th circuit who ruled today on a temporary extension of the moratorium. Two of the three have taken big oil junkets. Two of the three have litigated for big oil. One has $300,000 invested in big oil.
So, let"s start with your reaction to their ruling tonight.

MARKEY: Well, obviously, it"s absurd. There are 33 rigs out in ultra-deepwater. We have an ultra-deep rig at the bottom of the ocean. It"s a rig that is operated by Transocean, which is a Swiss company, that registered the rig in the Marshall Islands, had it checked by a Norwegian company for safety problems, and now, it"s the bottom of the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico.
There are ten other Transocean rigs out there of the 33 in ultra-deep waters. We"re not talking about the 970 other drilling rigs out there that are manned right now. We"re just talking about these 33.

It is an unbelievable miscarriage of justice for this court to make this decision knowing how risky it is to allow Transocean and others to continue to be out there without having a check on what they"re doing.

OLBERMANN: One of the premises in the statement from the court was that there was no evidence from the government presented that drilling was likely to resume, which is by itself farcical.

But let me move you to the insurance question. I had to file a claim by 5:00 today even if the oil is not going to come ashore near me until next month or next year. I mean, obviously, regulators at the state level would look at that. But what are your thoughts on this practice, and what Congress might specifically do about this practice?

MARKEY: Well, I understand what the--what BP is trying to do. I understand what the insurance industry is trying to do. In both instances, they"re trying to limit their liability.

BP doesn"t want us to know exactly how much oil went out there since they get fined by the barrel.

The same thing is true for the insurance industry. They"re trying to put a clock on this. They"re trying to say, well, it started 80 days ago. There is a limitation of 80 days in the filing of claims. And therefore, some poor soul out there that thinks they"re going to be able to sue, to be able to collect on their insurance claim, won"t be able to do so.

Well, it might have started 80 days ago, but it hasn"t ended 80 days later. It is continuing. And so, whether it be the government of Louisiana or it be the U.S. government, we are going to have to come down like a ton of bricks on any insurance company that thinks they"re going to be able to escape their liability to someone who purchased an insurance policy to protect themselves against the very thing that is happening right now.

OLBERMANN: Now to your question, to BP today, Congressman. Explain this apparent discrepancy on the timing of the completion of the relief well.

MARKEY: Well, again, back two years ago, they said that they could handle a
spill that was 300,000 barrels. As recently as this April, when they were filing to be able to drill the relief well, they said they could handle a spill of 162,000 barrels a day.

It"s obviously right from the get-go, they have had no idea what they are doing. I think that it"s very suspicious that they"re picking July 27th, the day where they"re supposed to produce their financials for the last three months, to pick as a date to speak to the financial community, that they"re likely to have begun the process and, in fact, completed the relief well, which will end all of the oil going into the Gulf of Mexico.

I think it"s very suspicious. I don"t think that a lot of weight should be given to it. I think there"s about as much likelihood of them being successful as there is the L.A. Clippers getting LeBron James tonight. I don"t think it"s going to happen.

But I understand why they"re saying it. They"re talking to the financial community as Mr. Hayward does his global tour to Libya and to Angola and other countries, trying to find investors in his company.

OLBERMANN: I think, by the way, you may have just--if they still have time to do it--you may given BP its public relations solution to this, start your own basketball team and sign LeBron James in an hour.

Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts--as always, great thanks for your time tonight, sir.

MARKEY: Thank you for having me on.

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