Top 5 Most Outrageous Statements Made by Officials Regarding the Gulf Oil Spill

Coast Guard photo

The comedy of errors (and omissions) surrounding the Gulf Oil Spill would be funny if it were being portrayed on Saturday Night Live and not wreaking havoc upon the environment and people’s livelihoods.  I cannot recall an incident of any kind where officials, both corporate and governmental, have made so many statements that were proven completely inaccurate.  We have compiled a  list of the top 5 most outrageous/ inaccurate statements made by all officials involved in the Gulf Oil Spill.  Please add to our list by commenting on this post!

 1.  “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume,” - Tony Hayward, BP CEO, May 14th, 2010.

 2. “There’s no crude oil leak at this time from the crude head or the risers adjacent to it, but if there is leakage, crews will be geared to respond….We have a one mile by five-mile rainbow sheen and crude oil mix that we’ve been actively skimming. That is leftover residual from the incident yesterday,( referring to the rig sinking)….We have a remotely operated vehicle that we’re getting a visual feed in the command center and monitoring the subsurface and the well head to ensure there is no crude leaking from the ocean floor”. – Rear Admiral Mary Landry, U.S. Coast Guard, April 23rd, 2010.

We have been told the government does not have the remotely operated equipment to which she refers – at least it was not on site.  It appears that the Coast Guard took BP’s word that there was no oil leaking and did not attempt to independently verify their claims.

 3. BP Plc and the US Coast Guard have reported that around 1,000 barrels has been leaking every day in the Gulf of Mexico, since the Transocean Ltd. drilling rig caught fire and then submerged, last week. – BP and U.S.Coast Guard, April 25th, 2010.

BP now alleges that 5,000 barrels per day are leaking into the Gulf even though independent scientists dispute this number and estimate it could actually be as high as 100,000 barrels per day.  This is no doubt why BP did not want the video of the leak released.

 4. “It’s (the pipe inserted into to well head to stem the flow- and save some oil for BP) now capturing 5,000 barrels per day of oil,” - BP spokesman Mark Salt, May 20th, 2010.

BP had to correct this statement the next day.  I guess so, they claimed that they were capturing 20% of the flow and that amounted to 5,000 barrels  per day. Wait a minute, you had said only 5,000 barrels per day were leaking.  One of these numbers had to be retracted, so they revised their estimate of the amount of oil being captured in the pipe to approximately 2,000 barrels per day (and actually alleged that reporters had gotten the first number wrong).

 5. I trust Tony Hayward (BP CEO), when I talk to him, I get an answer.” – Thad Allen, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant, May 20th, 2010.

How in the the world can you trust Tony Hayward or anyone else from BP .  This company has a terrible track record and not just from this incident.  They plead guilty to a felony in the explosion and fire at their Texas City, Alaska refinery. The following is a statement released regarding this incident: “These agreements are an admission that, in these instances, our operations failed to meet our own standards and the requirements of the law. For that, we apologize,” said BP America Chairman and President Bob Malone. “They represent an absolute commitment to work with the government as we continue our efforts to prevent another tragedy like Texas City, to make our Prudhoe Bay pipeline corrosion program more responsive to changing operating conditions and to ensure that our participation in the nation’s energy markets is always appropriate”. 

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Posted by admin on May 27 2010. Filed under Latest Ocean News, Ocean Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.