rssSome Gulf Lawmakers With Ties to Oil Industry Downplay Spill in Their Own Backyard
Wednesday, May 05, 2010 at 6:00 am
- 61 Comments
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) (WDCpix)
Last week — as thousands of barrels of oil were gushing each day from an uncapped well on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico — Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) took to the chamber floor to say that she didn’t want “to minimize” the severity of the disaster. Then she spent the next 20 minutes doing just that.
[Environment1]The slick, Landrieu said, contains “only 3 percent” thick emulsified crude that exists as “a very thin layer” — only as thick as “a couple of strands of hair.” The 5,000 barrels spilling out each day, she noted, represent “less than one-fourth of 1 percent” of the nation’s daily consumption. Relative to that requirement “the industry spill rate is quite low,” she argued.
“It is more risky to import our oil in tankers than it is to drill for it offshore, even considering this disaster that we’re dealing with today,” Landrieu said. “Retreat is not an option. … We must continue to drill.”
On one hand, that message has stumped environmentalists, government watchdogs and some of Landrieu’s own Democratic colleagues, who are pointing to the ongoing disaster as clear reason why policymakers should abandon any plans to expand offshore drilling and focus instead on cleaner energy alternatives. On the other, the oil industry is a powerful economic engine in Louisiana, and hasn’t been shy about showering the state’s congressional delegation with campaign cash. Indeed, the more than $758,000 Landrieu has accepted from the industry over her Capitol Hill tenure ranks 10th among all active lawmakers. Even following the worst drilling disaster in decades — even though the spill rests in Landrieu’s backyard — clean-energy advocates aren’t counting on the Louisiana Democrat for any serious support on drilling reform.
“There’s a reason why [corporations] contribute money into the political process,” said Tyson Slocum, head of the energy program at Public Citizen, a government watchdog group. “They’re giving money, not out of charity, but for the promotion of their own self interests. It’s with the explicit intention of getting something in return.”
Landrieu’s office this week denied that the industry’s financial backing has swayed her position on energy policy. “Campaign contributions, from energy companies or from environmental groups, have absolutely no impact on Sen. Landrieu’s policy agenda or her response to this unprecedented disaster in the Gulf,” a spokeswoman told OpenSecretsblog, which noted that Landrieu had received more campaign money from British Petroleum — the owner of the leaking Gulf well– than any other lawmaker in the last election cycle.
Landrieu, of course, is hardly the only defender of the oil industry, nor is she alone in downplaying the severity of the spill. Louisiana’s other upper-chamber lawmaker, GOP Sen. David Vitter, has also taken steps to protect the industry in the wake of the disaster. Vitter has called to increase the flow of money from Washington, to delay the Senate’s investigation into the spill, and to relieve BP of some of the responsibility for immediate cleanup.
“BP is spread too thin in trying to both cap the well and remediate the damage along the coastline, producing an inefficient and ineffective response,” he said last week in a statement.
Vitter has accepted more than $766,000 from the oil and gas industries in his career, placing him just ahead of Landrieu among active lawmakers.
There are others. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), after flying over the spill last weekend, came to the conclusion that the damage posed by the accident “is not Armageddon.”
“The oil spill is certainly bad. And it’s terrible that there’s a spill out there,” Taylor said. “But I would remind people that the oil is twenty miles from any marsh. The spill starts breaking up in smaller pieces naturally.”
Not everyone agrees. Several of Landrieu’s Democratic colleagues on Tuesday introduced legislation that would force oil companies to pay more for damages following oil spills like that afflicting the Gulf. Sponsored by Sens. Bill Nelson (Fla.), Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), the bill would hike the industry’s liability cap for such damages from $75 million to $10 billion.
“Oil companies must be held responsible for every cost related to an oil spill,” Lautenberg said, “and that includes both the environmental and economic damages.”
In Landrieu’s eyes, such damages are a small price to pay for the privilege of harvesting the oil and gas from within our own borders.
“No one has ever claimed, including myself, who’s an unabashed proponent of the industry, that drilling is risk free,” she said.
61 Comments
Pingback posted May 5, 2010 @ 7:55 am
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Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 11:05 am
Someone should take all the wildlife that dies and send it to Senator Landrieu's office.
Pingback posted May 5, 2010 @ 1:28 pm
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Pingback posted May 5, 2010 @ 2:07 pm
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Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 1:16 pm
Friday Gene Taylor called the oil spill a “crisis”. Saturday he downplayed it as being “chocolate milk”. Gene's brother, Dean, is the CEO of Tidewater, Inc (a company that depends on offshore drilling). That same Friday, Dean Taylor sold 15000 shares of his company's stock (TDW) at $54.95/share after a $4 jump since the spill. By Monday the stock dropped back down to $51.
http://firegenetaylor.com/grievances/oil-spill-…
Pingback posted May 5, 2010 @ 2:22 pm
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Pingback posted May 5, 2010 @ 3:51 pm
[...] our logic-resistant, industry-captured Congress. Basically, Republicans – and Democrats like Mary Landrieu don’t want an energy bill without offshore drilling. After this disaster, you won’t be [...]
Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 3:31 pm
Importing oil from terrorist-supporting nations is far higher a risk than abandoning the drilling of oil in our own country, on land OR water.
It is not a black and white, either / or situation.
Oil is a staple we NEED for far more than just gas to fuel engines.
Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 3:34 pm
WHY NOT, THE BIG BUSINESS SUPPORT THESE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF THEIR STATES. But they are more responsive to big business and money. They do not respect the real people, they represent big money and support them. WHAT A JOKE. WE have got to stop the LOBBYISTS
Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 3:39 pm
Don't be a fool. In case you haven't noticed, the company responsible is BRITISH Petroleum.
But Exxon, Chevron, and all the rest too are under NO obligation to sell oil recovered in the US in our market. To the contrary, they DO have a responsibility, to their shareholders, to sell it to the highest bidder on the global market.
Further, we export 1.8 million barrels of oil every day, as best I could tell from my own research. According to Bush administration figures, the most we would recover from incremental offshore drilling some ten years hence when all that capacity comes on line is a mere one-eighth of that, or 0.2 million barrels a day.
So you really need ti disabuse yourself of the illusion promulgated by the industry that drilling domestically has anything to do with domestic supply. It is only a drop in the bucket of world supply on which we all draw. And in order to contribute those drops in the bucket, we have to put our environment at risk? I think not.
It IS a black and white issue. Want more oil? Require oil drilled here to be refined and sold here. Until then, we need to drop this ridiculous notion that drilling here is to the benefit of American citizens
(unless of course you are the CEO of Exxon/Mobil — I don't think the CEO of the polluter with no backup plan is an American citizen, now, is he?)
Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 3:42 pm
Put her in a hazmat suit and hand her a mop. By the time she serves out her ten year sentence for bribery, she'll have the place lookin' ship shape!
Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 5:02 pm
Another thing, where is “little oil”?
Let's putt them all out of business.
Then no one can legally extort money from these economy- supporting corporations.
Using the stuff that helps keep us a productive nation, puts us all at fault as well.
But if there is an accident, we demonize those that all of the work?
You reap what you sow, applies to both sides.
Progressives who want to destroy our economy would LOVE to see oil get down to a tiny sputter.
Pingback posted May 5, 2010 @ 6:27 pm
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Pingback posted May 5, 2010 @ 10:13 pm
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Comment posted May 5, 2010 @ 10:06 pm
“The Crazy Lady, of whom it was revealed has ties to Big Oil.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/02/sarah-pa…
“And of whom has ties with criminal elements in Giddings and Tyler Texas (along with Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity)
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/05/sarah-pa…
“And of whom her PAC treasurer runs a shady political dirty tricks organization.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/05/timothy-…
“This SarahPAC treasurer's organization claims to be a non-profit 501(c)(4), but a nonprofit web identity, but “has not registered as a nonprofit, has no board of directors, and no paperwork on file with the IRS or the Federal Elections Commission”.
'Alaska's 'First Dude' takes leave from BP job'
http://www.adn.com/2007/08/22/198124/alaskas-fi…
'Palin urges 'yes' vote on TransCanada pipeline plan'
http://www.adn.com/2008/05/29/420067/palin-urge…
Pingback posted May 6, 2010 @ 12:53 am
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Comment posted May 6, 2010 @ 4:34 am
My dear Senator Landrieu who won't even commit to financial reform will get out there to be the voice of oil companies who have ruined the Louisiana coast for how long and for how bad. She has no clue about what we will face and yet she is being a shrill for these oil industry gluttons. She has a very pathetic record. Her roll shoud be mad as all get out and doing some tough talking to get this oil stopped right away not talking for them.
Pingback posted May 6, 2010 @ 5:37 am
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Pingback posted May 6, 2010 @ 6:06 am
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Comment posted May 6, 2010 @ 11:47 am
Used to be three-fourths, Mr. Cheney. Thanks for proving my point.
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Comment posted May 8, 2010 @ 4:36 am
Taylor did not defend BP. He told his constituents to calm down and not panic because oil breaks down naturally in the Gulf of Mexico. There still is no oil in Mississippi and if oil does get there it will be thin, weak, and easy to manage.
Here is the National Geographic News explaining what evaporation, bacteria, waves, sun, and wind do to oil in the Gulf:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05…
Pingback posted May 8, 2010 @ 3:11 pm
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Comment posted May 18, 2010 @ 5:46 pm
Why would anyone want to vote for this woman again. She has no shame.
Pingback posted May 22, 2010 @ 11:21 am
[...] back to the Oil Queen of Louisiana. According to the Washington Independent, She is 10th among all active lawmakers in oil industry campaign contributions. Last election cycle, [...]
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Pingback posted June 3, 2010 @ 12:10 pm
[...] Her shameless shilling for BP was noted by the Washington Independent who in article titled “Some Gulf Lawmakers with Oil Industry Ties Downplay Spill in Their Own Backyard” characterized it thusly (emphasis mine): Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) took to the chamber [...]
Comment posted October 13, 2010 @ 8:54 am
Unless you have ridden with and been protected
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