WASHINGTON (Jan. 3, 2013) Today, the Department of Justice announced that Transocean has agreed to plead guilty and pay $1.4 billion in criminal and civil penalties for the oil company’s role in the 2010 BP spill.
Below is the statement of Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who is the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee:
“Today’s announcement by the Justice Department is a critical step by the Obama Administration to hold all of the oil companies that were responsible for the worst environmental disaster in American history fully accountable for their misdeeds. The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster was not inevitable, it was preventable. Today’s criminal guilty plea by Transocean will help ensure that all oil companies drilling on public lands offshore understand that the American people expect them to follow the highest safety standards. Now, Congress must take action to put laws on the books that will ensure that we never have a similar disaster again.
“I commend the Obama Administration for its continued work to hold BP and other companies involved in this disaster fully accountable and protect the people, economy and environment along our nation’s coastlines.
“However, this settlement also underscores how risky it can be to open our coastlines to oil and gas drilling, something that we need to remember when the oil industry demands that we open sensitive new areas on the East Coast or Alaska to drilling. The simple fact is that there are some areas, such as Georges Bank in New England, that just shouldn’t be exposed to such risks."
Contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder, Rep. Ed Markey, 202-225-6065
