and they were overbudget and behind schedule on the bp deepwater horizon and that s what led to the explosion and the death of 11 people. jessica yellin joins me here. he kept it short and contrite and tried to look at the committee in the eye. he has a tough sale today. it is about the grilling he s going to get from the members of congress and we have to see if what they give us is a show, this forced outrage that we see in hearings in washington that make a lot of people feel uncomfortable or if it is going to ub substantive questions that get to the heart of what went wrong and make sure it doesn t happen again and what kind of response to happen by both bp in the future and by the federal government. i thought it was interesting that repeatedly hayward used the phrase that our word is good, we will make this right, these are not just words. he s trying to convey the sense that they are full participates in fixing the problem that they
including the use of valves similar to those that contributed to the texas city blast. finally, the deepwater horizon catastrophe, and the more evidence that comes in, it was clear that event was foreseeable and avoidable. after the explosion, bp said there was no oil leaking, and then 1 thousand barrels a day and then 5,000 barrels and we are now up to 60,000 barrels. for all this time, bp told the american people that it was an aberration, that it was a singular occurrence and it wouldn t happen again. it is not an aberration. for bp, this is business as usual. it s deja vu again and again and again, and the question many of us have is whether a ceo who has presided over a company that has
the opening statements. democrats are painting a narrative of a company that put profits over safety and i ignored warning signs in the weeks, days and hours before the deadly explosion on april 20th. 11 men died in the explosion and the result a continuing flow of oil into the gulf of mexico. millions of gallons now. bp beginning to cap and contain some of it but a relatively small percentage so far. we received an advanced copy of mr. hayward s testimony. he will apologize and try to get to the bottom of what happened. what will be interesting is when he is pressed with kwets questions by the committee, will he give any new details. under quite a bit of pressure because as he speaks, he know es the justice department is investigating bp for possible criminal negligence and the possibility of dozens of civil lawsuits against the company.
ali velshi is down on the gulf coast for us right now. folks are going to be watching the q&a with tony hayward where you ali, because they want questions as well. i m deeping in the gulf and louisiana and alabama and even when they were watching the president s address from the oval office the other night, there was a sense that they don t want as much of the history as they want the solution right now. they were hoping for a now announcement from the president about the numbers of people coming down putting rocks and creating barrier islands. getting unemployed people to come down here and help with the clean-up. putting everything possible towards stopping the spill. i think everyone down here gets that bp has a spotty history when it comes to safety. if you look at the texas city refinery explosion and the north slope leak they ve had. the issue here, is this a bp problem or an industry problem. because if it s an industry problem and you no he that
kind of money that hope to make it life in a short period of time. they re saying, how is the money i made a year ago that i didn t make today going to get to me efficiently? why are the problems in the process? there are things two think about, one, how much did bp know about this and what s bp s own corporate history about profitability and safety have to do with this? they had an explosion in texas, a spill on the alaskan north slope. bp is plagued with this. you also heard a congressional committee interviewing other ceos of oil companies this week where they found out that the other companies had the same disaster response plan for a spill in the gulf coast that bp had prepared by the same people. how much of this is industrywide? how much of this is regular layers, the mms of the department of the interior not knowing what would happen with a spill like this? we hope this conversation today