Oil And Gas Industry-Funded GOP Rep Can’t Give Safety Assurances For Lifting Drilling Moratorium

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http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/22/olson-drilling-moratorium/

(snip)
Last week, Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) decided to take the legislative route, introducing a bill in the House to lift the moratorium, saying it “is turning a tragedy into a nightmare.” He called it a “job-killing policy” because it will cause, he said, “other oil rich nations to move their rig operations overseas.” But last night on Fox News, when host Greta Van Susteren asked Olson if he could guarantee that the rigs effected by the moratorium have been “inspected” and are “safe,” Olson dodged, citing the “history of drilling” and the economy:

VAN SUSTEREN: Do you have any way of knowing that, for instance, the blow-out preventers work on these other 33 rigs, any way to guarantee that they have been, you know, inspected, that they’ve got all the sort of redundancy that’s necessary to make — to make sure they’re safe?

OLSON: Yes, ma’am. I would tell people look at the history of drilling in the gulf. We’ve been drilling there for over 50 years, 20 years in the deep water, and this is the first major accident we’ve had. <...>

VAN SUSTEREN: I think — it’s not history I’m looking for, it’s more assurances. <...>



Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/22/olson-drilling-moratorium/