Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday rejected an attempt by Democrats to subpoena the CEOs of BP and the other companies blamed for last year’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, offered a motion to subpoena the CEOs of BP, Halliburton, Transocean and Cameron. But in a 17-13 party-line vote, every Republican on the committee voted to table the subpoena request.
“Republicans have put the CEOs from the companies responsible for the worst offshore oil spill in our history into a witness protection program, when they should be helping to produce these witnesses before the committee so they can answer questions about their spill,” Markey said in a statement after Wednesday’s vote.
Wednesday’s hearing came three weeks after committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) held a hearing on the joint Interior Department-U.S. Coast Guard oil spill report. The Oct. 13 hearing included testimony from Obama administration officials as well as executives from BP, Transocean and a division of Halliburton.
But Democrats pressed Hastings to hold a second hearing on the report Wednesday with the CEOs of the companies. The CEOs declined to testify. In a letter to the committee Monday, BP said it had already provided a witness at the Oct. 13 hearing, adding that the company can not comment on the federal report “in light of the constraints imposed by numerous pending legal proceedings.”
Hastings dismissed Democrats’ subpoena request Wednesday as political grandstanding.
“Let me be very clear, if the companies officially cited for the oil spill had outright refused to provide witnesses, testimony or answers to the Committee, then I would be leading the effort to compel them to appear, by subpoena if necessary,” Hastings said in a statement. “But those are not the facts.”
He continued: “The Ranking Member has repeatedly stated that he wants to hear from only the CEOs. As I have stated before, I would also prefer that President Obama or Interior Secretary Salazar appear whenever this Committee has a hearing on the President’s policies or Interior Department actions. But it is the case that we often hear from other leaders empowered to fully represent and speak on behalf of the Department or Secretary Salazar.”
But Markey nonetheless bashed Republicans for blocking the subpoena while simultaneously planning to subpoena the White House Thursday for more documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee to the failed solar firm Solyndra.
“Within a twenty four hour period, Republicans will vote to protect oil CEOs from testifying on a multi-billion dollar disaster where 11 men died, and then turn around and attack the White House and clean energy with politically-motivated onslaughts using the same subpoena power they scorned using against the oil industry,” Markey said.
The joint Interior Department-U.S. Coast Guard report, released in September, faults BP, Deepwater Horizon rig owner Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton, which performed the concrete job on the well, for the spill. Markey also requested that Cameron, which manufactured the blow-out preventer used on the rig, appear at Wednesday’s hearing.
Last year’s oil spill dumped 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf and resulted in the death of 11 rig workers.
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