Reaction to Gulf Oil Spill Report

Press Release

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said a report released today confirms the urgent need to address systemic failures identified as causes of last year's tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and to develop cleaner, safer sources of energy.

"I will be reviewing this report carefully over the next few weeks, but I am incredibly disappointed over the things we could and should have done to prevent this disaster," said Pingree. "While this report confirms that reckless actions by some large corporations played a major part in this tragedy, it found problems much larger than one company. We need to take swift steps to strengthen an entire system that has failed us."

After its investigation, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill and Offshore Drilling concluded that:
· The well explosion could have been prevented;
· The immediate causes of the explosion were linked by identifiable mistakes by BP, Halliburton, and Transocean;
· Failures in risk management has put in doubt the safety culture of the entire industry;
· Dramatic reforms are needed to regulate energy exploration and production;
· Industry needs to takes its own across-the-board steps to increase safety;
· Current technology, laws, and practices for responding to such a spill lag behind the real risk of deepwater drilling;
· Scientific understanding of the environments where deep drilling has been and is proposed is currently inadequate.

The report, released today, can be found at www.oilspillcommission.gov.

"We clearly have a lot of work to do and this report offers a clear direction on moving forward more safely and responsibly," said Pingree. "But as we go farther and dig deeper for oil--pushing or even overstepping our understanding of the risks--will we ever be able to ensure safety? It's never been clearer that we need to develop cleaner sources of energy that don't expose us to this kind of catastrophic risk."

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