tom costello got a one on one interview with the chief operating officer of bp on board a bp helicopter. tom asked a bunch of what i have been dying to ask bp. among his great pointy questions was one about the myth cal caribbean walrus and its role in bp s oil spill response plan. to refresh your memory, the response plan by bp, the one specific to the gulf of mexico listed walruses that live in cold water among the species of wildlife you d have on worry about in the event of an oil spill in the gulf of mexico. that gave away the fact that the company obviously had not bothered to make a gulf of mexico-specific spill response plan. they just cut and pasted whatever they did from some place cold, some place with walruses and then called it the gulf of mexico oil response plan. my new hero, tom costello, asked
thomas costello from nbc got a one-on-one interview with the chief operating officer of bp on board a bp helicopter. tom asked a bunch of what i have been dying to ask bp. among his great pointy questions was one about the mythical caribbean walrus and its role in bp s oil spill response plan. to refresh your memory, the response plan by bp, the one specific to the gulf of mexico lists walruses who only live in very, very cold waterer among the species you d have to worry about in the event of an oil spill. in the gulf of mexico. and that gave away the fact that the company had obviously not even bothered to make a gulf of mexico-specific spill response plan. they just cut and pasted whatever they had done from someplace cold, someplace with walruses and then called it the
it also approved this spill response plan. what kind of oversight did the administration provide during the course of the drilling? there aren of questns that need to be ansred. and there will be adeqte ti for tht. but the administration s involvement in this will be a big part of the quiry. in the meantime weeedto do everything we can to stop this spill. what about the issu legitimate claims, as bp i t it wi honor? do you thinkhe cap for damages shod higher no higher than $75 million ayou heard senor schumer say they woul propose? well, the danger in that, o course, if you raise the cap too high, there will be no competition in t gulf and you ll leave a the business to t big guys li bp. what bp has said they need to be held to, which is they re going ay for this. they out topay r it. and they ll pay for it. but the danger in taking the cap too high yo end up with only massive, very large oil
there ought to be more effort by the government to look over the shoulders of the oil company. what do you sha? we re all angry about it. this is an environmental disaster of huge proportions. the president spent a lot of time pointing the finger at bp. we re also interested to know what the administration did. was the management service a part of this administration? that approved this sight? it also approved this spill response plan. what kind of oversight did the administration provide during the course of the drilling? there will be adequate time to answer these questions. the administration s part in this will be a big part of the inquiry. in the meantime, we need to do everything we to stop this spill. what about the issue of legitimate claims as bp said it will honor. do you think the cap for damages should be higher now?
not lived there in three million years. they forgot to mention hurricanes or tropical storms and, by the way, so did exxonmobil and conoco phillips in their spill response plan. the level of seriousness with which these oil companies took their responsibility to insure that in the event something went wrong, that a spill occurred is obviously very low. do you have more hope that the oil companies could be made to care about these things or do you have more hope that the government will stop saying yes to disaster response plans that say don t mention the possibility of hurricanes in the gulf of mexico? which is going to improve first? i actually think that this nightly, daily televising of this catastrophe and the abysmal response of the oil industry is going to make them accountable.