Gulf oil spill commission counsel: No evidence of ‘decision to favor dollars over safety’

WASHINGTON – The general counsel to the federal oil spill commission said today that their investigation of the causes of the Deepwater Horizon blowout had not found any evidence that BP, Transocean, Halliburton or any of the other companies involved with the Macondo well had cut corners on safety to save money.

“To date we have not found a single instance where human beings made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety,” said Fred Bartlit early in his presentation at the start of a two-day hearing of the National Commission of BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. He said that, so far, the commission had not found any situation where, “a man had a choice between safety and dollar and put his money on dollars. We haven’t seen it.”

Co-Chair Bob Graham, a former Democratic Florida senator and governor, said their missions was to help the American public “understand the causes of the worst oil spill in the nation’s history,” and that he believed Bartlit would provide “the clearest presentation the American people have received to date on what led to this tragedy.”

William Reilly, a Republican former EPA administrator who co-chairs the commission, said he the accident had undermined confidence in the energy industry and government, and he hoped their work would help “restore public trust.”

“To those few senators who blocked this commission form having subpoena power. I hope that you are pleasantly surprised and not disappointed” by their findings,” said Reilly. Read more at www.nola.com