Representative Lois Capps, during an Energy and Environment Subcommittee hearing on 6/15, gave BP executives the third degree about the company’s lack of concentration of cleanup technology. Using photos of oil booms used in Santa Barbara’s 1969 spill juxtaposed with images of booms placed in the Gulf, Capps questioned why — even though the company has spent millions of dollars on exploration, extraction, and lobbying — it has not invested the same amount on prevention or cleanup research. “What’s BP’s plan on containing the inevitable accidents from your offshore rigs,” she asked, “which are drilling in harsher and more difficult conditions?”
