MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript
Interview
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SCHULTZ: Meanwhile, President Obama plans to head back down to the Gulf on Monday. The last time he was in the region, he spent time with my next guest, Congressman Charlie Melancon of Louisiana.
Congressman, great to have you with us tonight here on THE ED SHOW.
REP. CHARLES MELANCON (D), LOUISIANA: Thanks, Ed.
SCHULTZ: You bet.
What do you make of the double talk in just the last 24 hours from BP officials when it comes to these oil plumes? Where do you stand on that?
MELANCON: Well, you know, the frustration, it begins the first day with a thousand barrels flow, then 5,000 barrels flow. And now we"re thinking maybe it"s 30,000 barrel flow. And what"s a plume?
You know, it"s--I guess you can play the semantics game. Let"s just be honest. The people already are frustrated enough, and if they"re knowing exactly what"s out there, rather than an argument going back and forth either between scientists and the company, or politicians and the company, it"s just not doing anybody any good.
SCHULTZ: But how do you explain a higher-up at BP being so inaccurate with the facts? I mean, it"s almost constant.
He says that there"s no oil plumes. Now we have new video that there is oil plumes. I mean, could their corporate communications be that screwed up?
MELANCON: Well, there comes a point in time when you have to just consider the source and look back and see whether you believed or you felt that they had been honest with you from the beginning. And I think that"s what"s happening generally. Not just from the media or the press, but from the citizens, themselves.
You know, maybe they believe that there"s no plumes down there, but there"s been scientists. I"ve always been a believer in science.
I don"t think scientists have an agenda of their own other than to document or provide that information which they find. I don"t think that the University of Georgia, which I think has one of the ships down there, has a game to play here. So, if it"s there, let"s say, well, it may be there. We don"t know, we don"t see it, but don"t just get into the denial mode, because all that does is fuel more confusion.
SCHULTZ: Well, it certainly does, but, Congressman, it also fuels tremendous speculation that if they"re not even going to be honest or accurate or up to the minute on exactly what is happening with the oil plumes, how in the world are the American people supposed to expect them to be honest when it comes to the claims process?
Your thoughts on that?
MELANCON: Well, obviously I have concerns about it. I talked with the guy that runs a company that"s doing adjustments. He"s telling me that the company is going out of their way to try and make things right.
Now, when I look at the amount of money paid out in advertising for their image, an amount that"s paid out in claims--and I don"t fault the gesture, I just fault the company. Five thousand dollars doesn"t make a fisherman whole.
SCHULTZ: Yes.
MELANCON: You know, there"s a lot of issues out there, a lot of problems. We need to work through them.
But we need to act in good faith and try and make sure that these people that are being hurt are compensated, that they know that there"s a possibility of a future, because right now they don"t really have a hope. They"re convinced by the lies, I guess, that their marshes, the wetlands, the estuaries, the Gulf, itself, may be dormant in terms of production of seafood. For how long, we don"t know.
SCHULTZ: Congressman, next week the officials with the oil companies are going to be on Capitol Hill, they"re going to be testifying. And here we are in day 51, and the head of the Coast Guard, Thad Allen, the commandant, the admiral, is asking for more openness in the claims process.
Has anyone in the Congress thought maybe it would be a good idea to bring somebody up from the insurance industry to explain to the American people exactly what the resources are in all of this?
Tell us about that.
MELANCON: I haven"t heard such being proposed, but that doesn"t mean that one of the committees of jurisdiction may not. But that"s a great question. I"ll be happy to ask that tomorrow and see if I can get an answer to it.
SCHULTZ: Well, it would seem to me that the oil companies are probably in pretty good communication with their insurance companies trying to figure out, OK, the claims process, what can we cover, what can we not cover? And you know they"re searching for fine print. They have got to be searching for fine print.
It would seem to me that some congressional committee should probably haul some people up from the insurance industry and ask them a few questions.
Congressman, great to have you with us tonight.
MELANCON: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: I appreciate your time here on THE ED SHOW. Thanks so much.
MELANCON: Thanks.
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