defines the we are seeking and to redirect to the gulf. the environmental restoration land acquisition we are seeking $19 billion of penalties against bp, and this is the maximum amount allowed under the clean water act on the calculation of negligence which triples the damages, and a certain penalty per gallon of oil spills and we are not even sure that the amount isn't more than 200 million gallons but that is the best estimate anybody can come up with. so we are trying to make dp cough up 19 billion a pretty is pointing the finger of devotee of. the coast guard released a report that puts a lot of the blame on transocean. we are also suing transocean under the clean water act. of course bp recently sued transocean asserting that they should pay and not bp. and of course this will be going on for a long, long time. one of the reasons we felt it was important to file lawsuits was to make sure that the government doesn't try to offer some kind of sweetheart settlement. and certainly we know that would happen under the bush administration,

of -- the mexican gulf of the gulf of mexico after the oil spill in 1979. the oil research -- industry didn't do any research. they didn't study it and just use it again this time. it was a source of a gusher underwater and we have seen footage of that to spray the dispersants. 98% just went into the ocean. >> it was reported a while ago that the $20 billion people were supposed to put into the fund was directly connected to the gulf production money but is that still the case? it was important but i haven't heard that again. the obama administration apparently allowed them to tie that to gulf oil production so that bp would hold the administration hostage because if they didn't allow more drilling in the gulf, was anything done about that? >> the reality is the company was about to go down the tubes. the share price was dropping every day. market capitalization was put in half in a matter of days. had some agreement not been reached, the government's fear was this company would go way. one of the largest companies on earth would die in front of the sand th

oil spill in the gulf of mexico. we were two weeks into what would ultimately become the worst environmental disaster in our nation's history. with more than four million barrels of oil spilling into the gulf. since that disaster we have learned many things about the safety of offshore drilling. we learned that the blowout, that the oil industry doubted as fail-safe, could be sure to fail if an actual blowout was under way. we learned that the only technology the oil industry had been relying upon in the event of a spill was a xerox machine. the spill response plans for major companies were so similar that they contained plans to evacuate walruses from the gulf of mexico even though the walruses had not called the gulf home in more than three million years. and they were such dead ringers for each other that they contained the same name and phone number of the same long deceased expert. we learned that the oil companies had neither the resources nor the ability to stop a deep water blowout. b.p. spill response includ

would want to deliberately poor oil into the gulf and i'm not suggesting that the script was actually written by b.p. in fact individuals within b.p. unfortunately are potentially part of. how shall i say a hidden hierarchy you know the questions need to be art who took the decision to put colusa on that rig these are questions that haven't been properly answered by the gulf coast hearings and has declined to appear before the gulf coast hearing by pleadingly the fifth amendment i.e. that if he does give evidence any evidence he gives may likely incriminate him and people can look this up for themselves and and see the you tube video clip of the united states senate deliberately overturning the request for the gulf coast hearings to be given the power supply in the gulf coast here and have been given the power subpoena it could have not only demanded that bob colusa actually appear before the hearing he could have demanded the bob colusa shares what he knows occurred on that rig immediately prior to the blowout what could possibly be the reason for essentially deliberately spilling mi

oil vessel exploded in the gulf of mexico. over several months millions of gallons of oil were dumped into the gulf. the oil spill caused irreparable damage to delicate eke systems, damaged -- ecosystems, damaged the shore and was devastating to local jobs and livelihoods along the gulf coast. indeed the oil spill caused significant harm to my state of florida's environment and economy from which we are still recovering. my amendment will have no impact on the overall bill. while i do oppose weakening the federal review process of lease applications for energy development, production and exploration of the gulf of mexico, the purpose of my amendment is simply to correct an injustice to the residents of florida and alabama in the bill as it is written. my amendment would strike section 202 which imposes an exclusive venue in the fifth circuit for civil actions relating to the leasing of federal land in the gulf of mexico for energy development, production and exploration. under this provision litigation related to leases on ene

in the gulf of mexico you suggest that it wasn't in fact caused by a technical failure or incompetence in any way that you think that something deeper and more sinister lurks behind it well my reason for that belief is that there are some very very important questions that both b.p. and the u.s. government have done their utmost to make sure don't get asked and to be very specific the deepwater horizon at the time had one of b.p.'s most experienced company men on the rig was a guy called ronald's second bardo and said it was taken off three supposedly to attend a course in laughing at louisiana now it's remarkable that b.p.'s most experienced company man should be taken off the rig to learn how to use the b o p at the most significant juncture of the the drilling operation i just. the wells of about to reach completion the person that was put on the rig to replace was a guy called bob colusa now bob is the complete antithesis of the civil guard oh he was a young guy he had no deepwater drilling experience he's only experience was land drilling and he was the main man he was the head ho

coast hearings to be given the power of speech now the gulf coast here and have been given the power subpoena it could have not only demanded that bob colusa or actually appear before the hearing he could have demanded the colusa shares what he knows occurred on that rig immediately prior to the blowout what could possibly be the reason for essentially deliberately spilling millions of barrels of oil into the gulf of mexico what is the purpose of it i believe that the purpose of all of this was it was a population reduction event and we've already seen elements of population reduction in the gulf coast area after katrina where many of the black residents of the area have not. returned to new orleans in some cases they haven't been permitted to return to new orleans because there's absolutely nowhere for them to go because they're not being permitted to return to their former residence so what you're suggesting is that governments and big business are colluding to cull populations and why would they target a population that lives on the coast in the gulf of mexico. because basically t

production of oil and natural gas in the gulf. -- results in no economic activity, no production of oil and natural gas in the gulf. we understand it is our responsibility. when tragic situations occur, that is our responsibility. we want to protect the environment, so we understand that is our goal, and we are working to figure out what that appropriate level should be. >> let's talk about one of the changes that happened, which is the requirement that companies proved they can contain an oil spill. there are two containment systems out there, and they are being used by companies as they get passes for bill but were stopped, after we saw what transpired in goals and last year, we were doing everything we could -- after what transpired in the gulf it depends they are depending on those who work, and if those do not work, we are back to the same situation, which is days if not weeks intercepting a narrow drill pipe, so my understanding is they have not been tested, so how do we know they are going to work? if they do not work, what

never mind the fact that the gulf of mexico in the gulf of mexico, the oil companies already hold the drilling rights to 34 million acres but are producing oil on only six million acres. never mind the fact that the 28 nonproducing acres of the gulf have more natural gas and about as much oil as you would ever get total from drilling up and down the east and west coast. never mind, my friends, the fact that from 2005 to 2009 big oil used less than 10% of their profits to explore for oil while they use between 60% and 90% of their profits to pay dividends and buy back stock. this is -- you know, these are behaving like financial industries, not energy industries. never mind the fact that the majority refuses to end the four billion -- it's actually more like $8 billion in tax breaks to oil companies at the very time that the top five oil companies took home over $3 billion in profits in just the last three months. never mind the fact that the top four oil companies took home $45 billion in profits during the five years from 2005 to 2009. thill still reduced their combined american work

in the gulf of mexico. it is estimated by next year to be down as much as 25%. that does not help us in this energy reality and rising gas price scenario that we're struggling with. >> to get back to drilling after the deep water horizon incident in april of last year, the very same republicans that are sponsoring these three bills to put to drilling back on the fast track, weather is leases or permitting decisions and areas based on the amount of oil they contain, they are the very same people who said, hey, we cannot put any bills out on reforms and oversight until we see the causes. the big major federal investigation that has subpoena power, which is the coastguard, we have yet to see that. should we not wait to see what that says about what happened out there before we go and pass bills that speed up drilling? >> first, we do need to hear from that investigative body. we need to do with their conclusions are. but we need to know -- but we know what we need to do in this industry to produce the energy w

right, we need to focus on the gulf coast. i know there are bills that you are working on to try to get that done. here's what i want you to see. i think you raise a legitimate question, and that is, we extract all of the oil of the gulf of mexico, about a third of a supply. and yet, we have the -- i hope we can find some common way forward to rectify the situation in the gulf of mexico. >> senator manchin. >> thank you. you can tell the frustration. i am sure you are hearing it loud and clear. we will be voting on a bill and i it will be 60 days. did i hear you say it should be 90 days instead of 60 days? >> we are talking about two different things. i think people are a bit confused. there are permits and then there are plans. plans are a broader authority that an operator seeks to do a variety of things. right now, there is a statutory 30-day limit on the time my agency has to review a plan. there's currently no time limit with respect to reviewing individual permit applications. >> but the amendment is for 60 days. >> righ

civil wars in the region and now the speculation about who could be next to sink into the violence and gulf in the arab world. come gadhafi son and three grandsons have reportedly been killed in a nato air strike on tripoli critics say seriously undermines the alliance insistence that protecting civilians not targeting gadhafi. rushes police strike at a group of terror targets in the south of the country among those killed the two high ranking militant warlords have links to al qaida. and people across the world celebrates workers' solidarity trade unions as well as political parties and news movements are taking opportunity to express themselves. take thirty one our next start is exclusive interview with the president of yemen he describes his view of the unrest in the arab world right now as a leader that's fallen victim to themself. for our guest today is the president of the republic of yemen ali up to last mr president please tell us your opinion as to what caused the current crisis in yemen i'm looking at have happened behind the scenes. the crisis in yemen did not occur today back in

the opposition in yemen says you first agreed to accept the initiative of the gulf countries then you speak about constitutional legalities and your right to remain a true cost until twenty thirteen are you linking your possible stepping down from your post to the need for achieving a corridor by the initiative of the gulf countries or are there other scenarios are mechanisms embedded. we agree to set the initiative first of all for the sake of avoiding bloodshed in the country and return the situation to its natural course in the economy and politics that is why we accepted the initiative although it does contain signs of an unconstitutional. provisions being indeed implemented will halley it should however be implemented selectively will reject it as strongly as we possibly can any way we did except all its provisions and signed it now it's time to bring it to life i do hope the foreign ministers of the arab states in the persian gulf work out a mechanism that will enable this agreement to come to life so mr president when do you think it will be more expedient to transfer your powe

on the gulf of mexico. they worry about the tourism in florida? there are already multiple articles in the paper that say that high gas prices are killing tourism in florida. this is a responsibility bill. you see, they want to punish those who make a profit while they give taxpayer money to those who fail, who are too big to fail, they punish the companies who make profits in this country while they give our money to those who fail to make a profit. it amazes me because what really matters here, what really creates jobs not only in my district but in everyone else's districts is affordable energy. affordable energy is what powers the u.s. economy. if they want to bring the profits of those four big oil companies down, they should vote for this bill. because when we drive the price of oil down and when we drive the price at the pump down we're going to drive those profits down. and we're going to take away our dependency on those foreign countries that are making way more profits than those private companie

often forget is referred to by the sunni world as the arabian gulf. let me first say that i view saudi arabia and to its lesser degree it's fellow tyrannies is the nation state that is protest the most dangerous to the united states and to the west generally. yes, russia and china are threatens to the united states. but they are threats washington openly acknowledges, closely watches and assesses and is fully capable of defending america against. saudi arabia, however, is a serious threat, indeed, one more dangerous than iran. toward which our governing elite and both parties turn a blind eye. our elite deceitfully pretend that riyadh is a close and reliable loy. it keeps america's security energy dependent on its enemies by relying on the saudis to play a pro-u.s. role in the u.s. oil market and it endangers our economy by allowing the saudis by buying an ever larging share of our out of control federal debt. in addition, the saudis over the past 30 years have built a largely effective lobby which is as pernicious and corrupting as opec but more quie

anyway, does anybody have any questions about anything related to the gulf oil spill? if you do just step up here. don't be shy. >> there was so much criticism -- [inaudible] -- i just don't know how you feel about the government's response. i know it changed as time went by but do you have a general sense of what they may have done differently? is there anything they could have done differently? >> the problem as i was saying, the conditions a mile deep in the ocean for pressure is so inaccessible and the pressure is so great, that pressure changes the physics of everything. makes it very difficult. it wasn't so much that they could have done something else though they did develop some technology in the process of trying to stop this that will come in handy if it happens again. what it showed is when you have a situation that can occur that you can't stop and you can't deal with you better make sure it doesn't occur in the first place. what it really says is we really need to take the prevention of this more seriously. it is not a thing to say we can make it 99% sure

this is what the gulf of mexico looks like. these are pipelines, this is what our state does to support the industry. you can see, texas, louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. we do not get one single solitary penny from a lease, bonus, or severance from any of the wells accept three miles off of the shore. no matter what we pass, the senator will not vote for anything unless there's some recognition of the platform that our state, you know, serves from the industry or nobody would be getting any money, any energy, any oil, any gas. i'm going to end there. but i have 100 other questions and commit that is i'll submit for the record. >> may i make a comment and respond? >> go right ahead. >> i think for the last two and a half years and you know we well, senator landrieu, from my time in the u.s. senate working on the committee and working on so many issues there has -- i have a jurisdiction that takes me from see to shining see into the oceans and all of alaska and many other places. i have probably been in louisiana and the gul

it led to more than 4 million barrels spilling into the gulf. they concluded that the total volume of oil that would be spilled as of the next 40 years. d be roughly 47,000 barrels of oil, that is less than what was spilled in the deep water horizon in one day. m.m.s. concluded in 2007 a worse case scenario, only 19 to 31 miles of gulf coastline would be impacted by a spill. the deep water horizon disaster resulted in oil reaching over 950 miles of gulf coastline. and m.m.s. determined that a deep water blowout would not present a cleanup problem because the oil would rise in the water column, surfacing almost directly over the source location, but in fact the oil spewing from the ocean floor remained an enormous subsurface plumes that spread across the gulf. the obama administration is already moving forward to hold these lease sales in the gulf later this year and early next year. and they are going to be more responsible. even the congressional budget office analysis of h.r. 1230 concludes, c.b.o. estimates that implementing the bill would ha

storms along the gulf coast caused 124 oil spills in the gulf of mexico. hurricane katrina, 233 gallons of oil spill and hurricane rita worsened the damage. if these rigs were in the gulf coast, there would be complete destruction. as we have seen, cleanup for these spills are incapable of removing a small fraction of the oil. in addition, from the bp oil spill, florida has over 284,000 claims with only 117,000 paid with a total of $1 billion for the gulf coast region, 10,000 fishing claims, 122,000 food and lodging claims, retail and sales claims and $1.6 billion paid on even more lost earnings and wages. we cannot afford another disaster in the magnitude with more drilling. we are still living on borrowed time. support the brown amendment. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from alaska. mr. young: i urge my colleagues to vote no and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. all time having expired, the question is on the amendment offered by the lady from florida, th

when we lose a sense to larry the gulf of mexico fisheries are going to collapse because. this is where those pieces were. when i started i had the optimism of the young and i thought that if you point out a problem things will change well it doesn't work that way you've got to really work at it to make things change. million is oil and gas industry generates more than seventy billion dollars a year and employs three hundred twenty thousand people. if you look around resound and you say well i had all this oil and gas obviously everybody here must be well off and incomes must be high and the road system must be great none of that is true their road system schools are in trouble all the time there's no money for any public services the state's always in a fiscal problem. and yet billions of dollars of oil and gas were removed from the state and our per capita income is among the lowest in the country our poverty rates highest next to mississippi thank god for mississippi so we don't have to be last in everything and so we don't have much to show for it except the waste that

horizon oil rig explosion and and and check flow of crude oil into the gulf of mexico. the environmental impact is unfathomable. 11 people died and thousands more have their lives and livelihood forever impacted by the oil spill. tom shroder takes off the and it kind back story of maritime tradition, economics, politics and corporate policy that culminated in the disaster and with clear insight for writing shows what happened and how and to whom. the most compelling thing about this book is it is a very human story. please help me ..come tom shroder. [applause] >> thanks for coming out today on such a gorgeous day. i have to say in advance that i haven't had a chance to prepare as i usually do for these talks because i spent the last couple weeks in a very scary situation. my son who is becoming a scuba diving instructor got an infection on his elbow and called up and said what should i do? are set if it doesn't get better go to the urgent care place. so we go to the urgent care place the next day and they give him some antibiotics. he wakes up and it blows up to >> he

according to the director of the -- at least 12 offshore rigs have already departed the gulf gulf. resulting in a significant -- gulf of mexico. resulting in a significant lowering of energy production. in january the moratorium forced seven oil rigs to abandon the gulf and head overseas costing american jobs and forcing the u.s. to import more foreign oil. these rigs have left. you see where they've gone. nigeria, egypt, the congo, brazil, french guinea. they are affecting jobs that have left with them. in fact, as many as 12,000 american jobs have been lost, and more than 36,000 jobs are at risk. i hear my democratic colleagues talking about jobs, jobs, jobs. in fact, we heard that just today in the science committee. one of my democratic colleagues talked about jobs is the number one issue. well, she's absolutely right. but it's her party's policy that are running jobs overseas. the this administration's policies that are making these rigs leave the gulf of mexico and go to nigeria and egypt and congo and brazil and french guiana. according to dr. joseph mason, the obama adminis

oil and gas industries have grown up in the gulf. industry and government relations evolve along with that all federal agencies exist and work together on alaska they are not necessarily have the resources or the relationships with the experience as described by senator hutchinson in the gulf. the epa for example are the querist sample. the have minimal resources. the bill would also create coordinators in the atlantic and pacific when and if the sales happen in these reasons, regions. finally, we all recognize these are contentious issues. plenty of light in the family with outside groups, lots of litigation to date and there will be more down the road. litigation prior replaces and speeds the resolution of the differences but doesn't deny access to courts. the kaput of logistics and long lead times easy to see why the season's slip away we have watched the 2010 season, 2011, just disappear from the ability for us to explore. i want to think the committee for allowing the cheering on the bill and the goal here is to speed up the pro

oil spill in the gulf of mexico.e two weeks into what would ultimately become the worst environmental disaster in our nation's history. with more than four million barrels of oil spilling into the gulf. since that disaster we have learned many things about the safety of offshore drilling. we learned that the blowout, that the oil industry doubted as fail-safe, could be sure to fail if an actual blowout was under way. we learned that the only technology the oil industry had been relying upon in the event of a spill was a xerox machine. the spill response plans for major companies were so similar that they contained plans to evacuate walruses from the gulf of mexico even though the walruses had not called the gulf home in more than three million years. and they were such dead ringers for each other that they contained the same name and phone number of the same long deceased expert. we learned that the oil companies had neither the resources nor the ability to stop a deep water blowout. b.p. spill response included an a

for more offshore oil drilling a year after the massive spill in the gulf of mexico. john fowler investigate understood bay area research suggest something big oil spills may not be so bad after all. >> reporter: the deep water horizon blowout, the biggest oil catastrophe every. but we are seeing is evidence that we may have reacted. >> there won't be as much to worry about and as much groom and doom as we saw in the media -- gloom and doom as we saw in the media from this oil and i. >> reporter: this sample came directly from the blown out well. he said when the oil gushed out, much of it simply disappeared. >> it's bio degradable, naturally. >> reporter: they searched the gulf top to bottom looking for signs of oil. >> we can't find any oil at all. we can't detect it. >> reporter: in his laboratory, new strains of oil consuming bacteria are more efficient than any predicted. bp partly paid for the research, but he initself is it had no input on his work. other studies so that the spilled gulf oil may be no problem in as little as two years. >> they will use that typ

as i said like the gulf and so you cannot really separate the united states cannot go totally against the interests of the gulf north can go focus only on its own there is ok mine go to hell i want you to michael and i have to find the wireless card how do you how do you mean original how do you get married how do you marry the two what's the formula. i can see it's quite right to say that we're not going to have the same policy for every country there are cultural differences there's a bottom many differences what i guess i'm looking for is some consistent principle of a way of saying this is what the united states is trying to accomplish the problem that i see i guess you could call it hypocrisy or contradiction is that we have seen the results of this with jimmy carter jimmy carter's foreign policy mostly consisted of scolding countries that he thought didn't live up to the standards that the united states actually really didn't support itself because there were a bunch of puppet regimes around the world that we supported to try to prevent the countries from going communist now we

the persian gulf nation in political turmoil that is home to the u.s. fifth fleet and sits between two powerful neighbors-- saudia arabia and iran. tonight, we have margaret's interview with bahrain's foreign minister. >> warner: mr. minister, thank you for having us. spoob giving a speech on thursday addressed to the middle east and north afternoon a. do you feel you've had u.s. support for the actions you've taken here, both in the immediate crisis of the uprising and then there the crackdown? >> yes, of course, we felt that we had u.s. support in general as we've always had the u.s. support in bahrain and the gulf region. there's no doubt that the u.s. support is a support that we always look for because the u.s. is a major ally. >> warner: now, is the united states urging you to ease some elements of this crackdown? for instance, to open up all the trials to press coverage? or to release some of the hundreds who are still in detention, indefinite detention? >> being an international safety situation, there's no doubt we are in constant contact with

united states does not have the same interest in every single country for example if you take the gulf states the united states is going to have to take an entirely different approach because of our interest because our concern and what about iran hence our policy and relation with it with back rain is somewhat different so we are much easier going with the grain and we doing says safer in libya or in syria at this point that is we have to distinguish here between american national interests in various arab countries and is no question about it our conduct and our reaction to each country is depending on the level of interest in each of these countries and i wonder one other point i want to mention when it comes for example to the gulf regardless of the fact that behind has a majority of shiite the this is the majority of the population in the gulf is sunni and they are terrified for example of what iran is up to the united states doesn't have a choice but to support the current regime throughout the gulf so we have to distinguish between american interests the interests of the local g

regardless of the baron has a majority of shiite the majority of population in the gulf is sunni and they are terrified for example of what iran is up to has the united states doesn't have a choice but to support the current regime throughout the gulf so we have to distinguish between american interests the interests of the local government and it's in a very tough job to try to draw any kind of a template and say all arab states are going to follow the same result that's not going to happen ok daniel you want to jump in there i could see that you wanted to you had great head first likely correct which you sort of introducing a united states has not had a consistent policy professor monger pointed out under george w. bush there was a dramatic break and two thousand and three saying for sixty years we've worked with a tyrant now we're not going through stability used to be our goal down some markers . it's a dramatic break but by two thousand and six or so if you're not on that so many bombs continue giving up and we're back more or less was pretty fast for we had a very american troo