Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today chaired the fourth in a series of hearings on BP's devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Today's hearing looked at the federal government's response to the oil spill disaster and examined the future of energy exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf.

Testifying before the committee were Ken Salazar, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior and David Hayes, Deputy Secretary, Department of Interior.  The hearing can been seen here.

"It's clear that prior to the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig neither the companies involved nor the government adequately appreciated or prepared for the risks involved in a deepwater drilling operation of this type.  The results of that failure to properly assess and prepare for risks have been disastrous.  Lives have been lost.  The livelihood and way of life of many Gulf residents have been interrupted and in some cases destroyed.  The environmental damage has been immense," Bingaman said.

The committee examined the results of the Interior Department's 30-day safety review to evaluate oil and gas safety measures that could be put implemented on an interim basis, pending the completion of the on-going investigation.

"Investigations are ongoing into the cause of this disaster, and we do not have certainty about what happened.  The best minds in the country must be focused on stopping this oil leak and cleaning up the affected areas.  And yet we must make sure that ongoing operations are safe.  As a result, regulators have acted quickly to immediately impose new safety measures, as identified in the 30-day timeline requested by the President and compiled by the department, at ongoing operations sites," Bingaman said.

The report recommends a number of specific measures improve the safety of offshore oil and gas activities, including a recertification of all Blowout Preventers for new floating drilling operations; stronger well control practices, blowout prevention and intervention procedures; tougher inspections for deepwater drilling operations; and expanded safety and training programs for rig workers.