CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript

Interview

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BLITZER: All right. We're all over the breaking news coming in only within the last few minutes.

BP finally gets the green light to perform some critical tests on its new oil well cap just after a 24-hour delay. You just heard it. You saw it live, Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander briefing all of us.

Let's discuss what is going on with Congressman Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. He's the chair of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He's been one of the leading critics of BP in all of this.

Congressman, thanks very much for coming in.

REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I'm glad to be here. Thank you.

BLITZER: Do you have - do you have confidence in what you just heard from Thad Allen?

MARKEY: Well, I'm hopeful. I think every American is hopeful, but obviously there are many questions that still have to be answered about the integrity of the well and the integrity of the sea floor surrounding this well.

BLITZER: What - what does that mean exactly when you say the integrity of the well and the integrity of the sea floor? Explain your concern.

MARKEY: Well, I guess to put it in simpler terms, if you had a hose out in the back yard and you decided to put your hand on top of the hose that's going to put pressure on the rest of the hose. And if it's not strong enough, it will start to spurt out in other parts of the hose.

That's what they have to check here. They have to ensure that this well is strong enough to withstand the kind of pressure that will be applied to it when they complete the containment cap on the top.

BLITZER: In other - in other words when they close off the valves at the top of that new containment cap, they want to make sure it doesn't make matters even worse.

MARKEY: And they also have to make sure that on the sea floor that they're not going to also see a result that they had not -

BLITZER: Explain that to me because I'm not exactly clear on what your - your concern is there. We know there are - are, you know, maybe a billion barrels of oil on the sea floor on the bottom of this well. But what's your concern there?

MARKEY: Well, we don't actually know what the geology is, so we haven't known what the geology is on the - on the bottom of that sea floor. So we have to make sure, and that's why I wrote a letter to BP on June 23rd, asking them about the information they had on well integrity and on sea floor integrity, because there is a possibility that the oil could begin to migrate if there is not enough integrity in the geology surrounding the well as well.

BLITZER: And when you say migrate, you mean it just come out from the bottom?

MARKEY: That is correct.

BLITZER: And make - because I've heard some geologists, some oil experts say if that were to happen, then the Gulf of Mexico would be like the Dead Sea.

MARKEY: Well, again, we have to be very careful here. This is an experiment which has never been conducted before in the history of the planet. This is an underwater science experiment and I think that Admiral Allen and Marcia McNutt, the head of the United States Geological Survey, and the Steven Chu, the Secretary of Energy, are acting with great caution here in ensuring that BP does not move too quickly.

We have a lot to learn so that we don't invoke the law of unintended consequences and make something much worse than it is right now.

BLITZER: Are you getting more or less confidence in BP as this - as this crisis continues?

MARKEY: Well, again, I wrote a letter to them back on June 23rd about the wellbore integrity, about the sea floor integrity, what they knew. I have yet to receive the information.

I think the public has a right to have access to all of this information. This is - these are public waters and there should be transparency. I haven't received the answer yet. You don't know the answer and neither does the general public. And I think that continues to be the failing in the way in which BP deals with this issue.

BLITZER: What about the Obama administration and specifically the point people that has dealing with this, not only Thad Allen, Marcia McNutt, but the others, Ken Salazar, Janet Napolitano, Steven Chu. Do you have confidence in them?

MARKEY: I think that they're making the right decision right now. They're slowing down BP. They're not allowing them to rush here before the science is completely understood. That is the role of the government, not just to limit the liability of BP but to ensure the livability of the Gulf of Mexico for a generation to come.

So this test now is something that is being supervised by Thad Allen, by Steven Chu, by Marcia McNutt and I - that gives me a lot more confidence that we will have the information that we need before BP is allowed to take the next step.

BLITZER: Congressman Markey, we're going to watch this very, very closely together with you. We hope you'll come back. Thanks very much.

MARKEY: Thank you.

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