significant changes, first and foremost in the drilling safety rules. second in terms of spill response capabilities, and third in terms of the ability of operators to control subsea containments. the reason there were no permit deepwater drilling permits granted until late february is because until that time industry had failed to demonstrate that it had the capabilities to contain a subsea blowout. now they have those mechanisms, and in connection with every drilling permit that we approve, the operator has to designate the containment capabilities that it will rely on in the case of a spill. that s an enormous advance. obviously you want to prevent spills from happening to begin with, but we watched with horror for 87 days when the mccondo spill could not be contained. we now have a very different set of containment equipment and plans than we did then. and so that should make the american people, and you, feel much differently about deepwater
blowout preventers. we put in place this past fall a set of new drilling safety rules that imposes the first for the first time a set of quite substantial requirements on operators who propose to drill both in the gulf of mexico and anywhere else. it requires certifications by independent engineers of the drilling process. it requires them to address issues relating to well design, well casing, well cementing, which are all in the sat gore of prevention which the president mentioned in some of the clips you played and that you mentioned. i don t think any of your reports have talked about those prevention measures that we ve put in place. which are in fact very significant changes in what industry is required to do, and imposed significant burdens on industry. they ve got to meet all those new requirements in each and every application to drill that they file with our agency. and they ve got to comply with
i want to start just by giving you the opportunity to tell me if you think i ve gotten any of the facts wrong. i think you ve gotten a lot of the facts wrong. i think you ve laid out a narrative about what we ve been focusing on that completely ignores the enhanced safety requirements that we ve imposed throughout the industry. we ve not focused just on containment. we haven t focused just on blowout preventers. we put in place this past fall a set of new drilling safety rules that imposes the first for the first time a set of quite substantial requirements on operators who propose to drill both in the gulf of mexico and anywhere else. it requires certifications by independent engineers of the drilling process. it requires them to address issues relating to well design, well casing, well cementing, which are all in the sat gore of prevention which the president mentioned in some of the clips you played and that you mentioned. i don t think any of your reports have talked about thos
deepwater drilling permits. in fact, there have been very significant changes, first and foremost in the drilling safety rules. second in terms of spill response capabilities, and third in terms of the ability of operators to control subsea containments. the reason there were no permit deepwater drilling permits granted until late february is because until that time industry had failed to demonstrate that it had the capabilities to contain a subsea blowout. now they have those mechanisms, and in connection with every drilling permit that we approve, the operator has to designate the containment capabilities that it will rely on in the case of a spill. that s an enormous advance. obviously you want to prevent spills from happening to begin with, but we watched with horror for 87 days when the mccondo spill could not be contained. we now have a very different set of containment equipment and plans than we did then. and so that should make the american people, and you, feel much differe
we haven t focused just on blowout preventers. we put in place this past fall a set of new drilling safety rules that imposes the first for the first time a set of quite substantial requirements on operators who propose to drill both in the gulf of mexico and anywhere else. it requires certifications by independent engineers of the drilling process. it requires them to address issues relating to well design, well casing, well cementing, which are all in the category of prevention which the president mentioned in some of the clips you played and that you mentioned. i don t think any of your reports have talked about those prevention measures that we ve put in place. which are in fact very significant changes in what industry is required to do, and imposed significant burdens on industry. they ve got to meet all those new requirements in each and every application to drill that they file with our agency.