Salazar Defends Moratorium, Promotes Safe Energy Future

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday he hopes the country will learn from the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and defended a moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by the Obama administration.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) expressed outraged with the administration’s response to the spill, saying the temporary drilling ban “doesn’t make any sense to me.” Burton said he feared rigs will move to other countries, leaving many American workers without jobs.

Salazar defended the moratorium, saying it is necessary when “all of our resources are focused” on the current spill.

Salzar said he hopes that the Gulf can be restored to a condition “better than it was before April 20,” and that the country will invest in safer oil and gas acquisition methods.

“[We must] embrace the new energy future of America with a much broader portfolio including wind, solar, and geothermal energy,” the embattled Secretary said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) voiced concern over the nation’s energy policy as a whole, calling offshore drilling exploitive of the environment.

“We need to start thinking about [how] our system is collapsing.”

Feinberg Is Gulf Coast's $20 Billion Man

By Rob Sanna - Talk Radio News Service

Attorney Ken Feinberg, who was recently appointed to monitor the Gulf Coast Claim Facility, told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday he plans to overhaul the way compensation is being conducted in the Gulf. Feinberg said he plans to tackle the situation by implementing changes that would make compensation faster, more accurate, and more transparent to eligible people affected by the spill.

“Yes the process has to be much quicker, we will accelerate it. It must be more transparent,” he said.

“The data…is inadequate, does not provide proficient sunshine on how BP has been processing claims, we will do a much better job.”

Pledging his independence from the federal government and BP, Feinberg said he plans to establish a centralized claim center, beef up a staff of adjusters and be a constant, visible figure for Gulf Coast residents.

“This is an independent, private program,” he said. “I’m not beholden to the Obama administration. I’m not beholden to BP. I’m an independent administrator calling the shots as I see them.”

Feinberg said the administration will take fraud very seriously and plans to work with the Department of Justice to ensure the legal integrity of the program is not compromised.  

Feinberg also said he would make sure claims involving injuries incurred during the cleanup, as well as the the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, will be claimable within the program and that injuries that develop further down the road because of exposure to oil could be claimed at that time as well.

“My agreement I have between the administration and BP, at least at the present, I am dealing only with individual and private business claims, no government,” he said. “That might change, but right now that’s the limit of my jurisdiction”

Congress Can't Trust BP To Protect Clean Up Crews, Says Democrat

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) said Monday that BP, the oil giant responsible for the massive oil spill in the Gulf Coast, cannot be counted on to protect the health of workers assigned to clean up the spill.

“We know we can’t trust BP,” Capps said during a discussion at the Center For American Progress (CAP) in Washington, D.C.. Capps added that BP lacked the incentive to provide adequate healthcare to cleanup workers.

Ellen-Marie Whelan, the associate director of health policy at CAP, explained the importance of extensive data compilation so that government agencies can monitor the long term health effects of the spill, especially regarding the unknown effects of the chemical dispersant.  

“Some of the [health] effects can take years to emerge,” said Whelan.

Dr. Lesley Russell, a visiting fellow at CAP who focuses on health issues, outlined the many risks that can arise from the spill, including contaminated seafood, PTSD, and fertility issues.  Russell cautioned that cleanup workers near the crude oil, burning oil, and dispersants, are already complaining of feeling ill.

All three emphasized that it is important to learn from past disasters, such as 9/11, the Exxon Valdez spill, and a 2002 oil spill of the coast of Spain, when looking at the adverse health effects and how to protect emergency cleanup workers as well as residents.

Media Restrictions Along Gulf Coast Indicative Of National Press Issues, Free Press Advocate Says

By Brandon Kosters - Talk Radio News Service

Clothilde Le Coz, the Washington Director of Reporters Without Borders, told Talk Radio News that it’s problematic that the Coast Guard has imposed rules that limit press access to Deepwater Horizon response operations, but that this “kind of decision happens in a broad context for the media” often, indicating that “the U.S. [is] not that transparent.”

Le Coz said that photographers are “the ones who are the most targeted by [this] kind of restriction,” and cited the example of White house photographers, who she said “have been boycotting certain meetings because they have faced too much restrictions on their work.”

“It’s another attempt to constrain the reporters on a certain level of information.”

The rules imposed by the Coast Guard prohibit anyone from coming with 65 feet of booms and response operations. Violators could be fined $40,000 and charged with a felony. Reporters and photographers must get permission from the Coast Guard to gain access to restricted areas.

The Coast Guard claims that it is trying to protect the safety of response workers, but many journalists believe that this is a move to limit press coverage of the disaster.

Brother Of Deceased Deepwater Horizon Employee Pleads For Equal Compensation

By Alexa Gitler-Talk Radio News Service

Christopher Jones, brother of Gordon Jones, one of the 11 men who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April, testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on what he described as the unjust nature of the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), a piece of legislation that limits how much families are entitled to following maritime deaths, and the necessity to update the current inequities for not only the families of the 10 other workers killed in the explosion but for all future maritime vessels.

“[BP] could potentially write a check for $1,000 dollars for a funeral costs and walk away, under the current Death on the High Seas Act,” Jones said.

DOHSA, passed in 1920 and not amended since, limits a corporation to compensating economic damages only and makes companies immune from entirely compensating families for additional costs incurred by the loss of life.

In 2000, after a Boeing 747-100 crashed off Long Island shortly after takeoff from Kennedy International Airport, the families of those aboard were awarded exemption from DOHSA and as of now, companies are liable to grant non-economic damages to families of victims that die in the sea as a result of a plane crash.

“We are here today to ask for that same amendment, so that everyone who perishes in federal waters is protected equally under the law and is allowed to recover non-pecuniary damages, so that there is no cap,” said Jones.