Maloney Statement on 50-Day Anniversary of BP Well-Rig Explosion

Statement

Rep. Maloney made the following statement on the house floor today:

It's been more than 50 days since the Deepwater horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. In that time, at least 40 million gallons of oil and 1 million gallons of chemical dispersants have entered our oceans.

It's been more than 50 days since the Deepwater horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. In that time, at least 40 million gallons of oil and 1 million gallons of chemical dispersants have entered our oceans.

To give you some idea of what this means for the Gulf Coast, if the oil disaster was centered in my district, it would completely cover New York City, Long Island, Connecticut and Northern New Jersey. The oil would stretch to Scranton, Pennsylvania in the West, Philadelphia in the South, Worcester, Massachusetts in the East and almost to Albany, NY in the North. And that's just on the surface -- we still don't know the true extent of oil plumes stretching deep underwater.

With a disaster of this enormous magnitude, it's absolutely critical we know everything we can about the oil, its scope and its effects on the Gulf of Mexico. But according to recent reports, BP is refusing to provide critical samples and data to scientists studying the disaster.

Scientists researching the vast underwater damage of the oil spill have been denied oil samples from BP. Other scientists studying the flow rate at the source of the oil haven't received high quality video they requested from BP's underwater robots. Still more researchers have asked for but not received access to much-need data to study oil plumes beneath the surface of the ocean.

It is imperative for BP to give scientists inside and outside the government access to every sample, every data point and every other resource they need to help us know the truth about BP's oil disaster.

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