BP Latest Lapse Shows Need for Congress to Pass Offshore Drilling Safety Measures

(Washington, DC—June 7, 2010) “This morning’s announcement that BP has insufficient water- and oil-handling capacity at the disaster site is yet another example of the company’s repeated failure to plan for contingencies,” according to a statement today by Environmental Defense Fund President Krupp.

“BP PLC apparently underestimated the amount of processing capacity it would need to handle the gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico after fixing a container cap atop the blown well,” according to a report today by MarketWatch.com, so the company doesn’t have enough equipment on-site to handle the volume.

“BP displays a disturbing inability to quantify the volume of oil that is gushing out of the well,” Krupp’s statement concluded. “If we’ve learned anything from this mess, it’s that offshore drilling must be accompanied by defense-in-depth and thorough preparation for the unexpected, an issue the Senate should address when it passes the climate and clean energy bill authored by Senators Kerry and Lieberman. All Americans are wondering: why can’t this company get ahead of these problems?”