Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

U.S. SENATOR Jeff Bingaman

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Contact Senator Bingaman's Office:

Jude McCartin
Maria Najera
703 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5521

Bingaman Chairs Second Hearing on Gulf of Mexico Oil Leak

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today chaired the second in a series of hearings on the disastrous BP oil spill underway in the Gulf of Mexico.  Today's witnesses included various high-level Obama administration officials, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.  The hearing can be seen here (beginning at minute 20).

Bingaman is trying to determine what regulatory changes need to be made at the federal level to prevent any such disaster from happening again.

"I believe that there are several dimensions to regulatory failure in this case.  President Obama suggested one, last week, when he cited a 'cozy' relationship between the Minerals Management Service, or MMS, and the industry it was regulating," Bingaman said before the hearing began.

"There are three other regulatory areas that I think bear some close examination in this hearing:

1. Whether we had the right technical standards in place to govern the drilling being undertaken by the Deepwater Horizon rig;
2. Whether we have been taking a 'systems' approach to oversight of deepwater drilling operations, with sufficient staff resources and training to match the complexity of what was being undertaken; and
3. Whether we had adequate mechanisms to follow-up on changes being made to the complex drilling operation for this well, as drilling was proceeding," he said.

Bingaman said it is imperative to find out whether the problems that existed on the Deepwater Horizon are present in other deepwater drilling operations in the Gulf, and that a thorough, independent technical review of the drilling plan for the well is performed.

"I am glad President Obama has announced he will appoint a commission similar in style and purpose to the one that explored Three Mile Island and the loss of the space shuttle Challenger, and look forward to it beginning its work soon," Bingaman said.

A third hearing in the Energy Committee is scheduled for next week.