deep water horizon and other disasters like the refinery explosion in texas city, texas, and the alaskan oil pipeline spill? i think we ve acknowledged in 2005 in 2006 that we had serious issues. as a consequence, we set out to implement systematic change in bp. i set the tone from the top by saying very clearly, safe, reliable operations were with our number one priority. we ve invested billions of dollars in the integrity of our plant. we ve recruited many thousands of engineers and technologists into our company, including many from our industries such as the nuclear industry and other parts of the chemical and oil and gas industry. and we have changed fundamentally our whole approach to the management of our operations through the implementation of significant change to our processes.
commence, lawmakers will again begin to question hayward. let s bring in pat buchanan and democratic strategist/msnbc contributor karen finny. i want to begin with one with of the lawmakers on this committee, joe barton, who described the $20 billion bp has put into escrow at the request or at the persuasion of the white house, joe barton described it as a shakedown. he s apologized for it but here s the statement by the press secretary. he says, what is shameful is this is the press secretary robert gibbs joe barton seemeds to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business on or abouts and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. he may think a fund to compensate these americans is a straj di, but most americans know the real tragedy is what the men and women of the gulf coast are going through right now. members from both parties should repudiate those comments. pat buchanan, he s not the only
i can t recall that number, i m afraid. please submit for the record. how long would the test have taken? in the order of hours i believe but i m not certain. please submit that for the record. now, you were supposed to engage in circulating drilling mud in the well bottom when the casing is on the bottom and before cementing. this is referred to as bottoms up. did bp fully circulate the mud, yes or no? i don t believe the mud was fully circulated. the process that the team on the rig was follow was in line and approved by the mms. thank you. did bp can you assure us under oath, again, that the decision not to fully circulate the mud was not made to save money and time? i can t answer that question because i wasn t there. thank you. how much money did avoiding this procedure save?
management accountability project in which it stated there was a culture that evolved over the years that seemed to ignore risk, tolerate noncompliance and accepted incompetence. so i wasn t surprised when with we heard about the explosion in the gulf and bp was part of it. since then, this complete, the oversight investigations committee of the energy and commerce committee, we have method ick alley looked at this issue. i know you have and your company has also. may 12th we had a hearing where we looked at a number of things that went wrong. on may 25th our committee, chairman waxman and myself put out a home mow based on bp s preliminary report. i m sure you re familiar with that report, are you not? i am. on june 14th chairman waxman and i sent you a 14-page letter where we talk about the crazy well and nightmare well. quite frankly, bp blew it. you cut corners to save money
those decisions. even though you ve worked 28 year nz the oil industry, you re the bp ceo, and you ve said like a laser you re going to safety is the biggest issue and you have people under you making these kinds of decisions and now you re reviewing them. do you disagree with the conclusion that this was riskier to use this particular well lining? i m not prepared to draw conclusions about this accident until such time as the investigation is concluded. well, this is an investigation. that s what this committee is doing, an investigatory committee. wef expect you to cooperate with us. are you failing to cooperate with other investigators as well? because they re going to have a hard time reaching conclusionses if you stonewall them, which is what we seem to be getting today. i m not stonewalling. i simply wasn t involved in the decision making process. i ve looked at the documents, and until the investigations are complete, both yours and