Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Miles Wolf Tamboli
Talk Radio News Service

In her weekly press conference Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed BP for paying dividends to its shareholders when they could have been reimbursing areas of the the Gulf Coast affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill.

"BP made $17 billion in profits last year," Pelosi said. "They have a responsibility to pay their bills."

Pelosi told reporters that she hopes the $75 million dollar liability cap outlined in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 will be lifted altogether. When asked what she would like to hear from the oil executives coming to Capital Hill next week, Pelosi said that the American people deserve integrity.

"We want to hear the truth," she said. "BP misrepresented what their technology could do."

The Speaker ridiculed BP's cleanup efforts, asserting that the use of golf balls, hair, and diapers does not exactly reflect that the third largest energy company in the world is utilizing the technology of the future.

Pelosi spoke for many Democratic lawmakers when she called for research to develop safer drilling technology and a new energy policy that would reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.