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Energy committee in oil-spill 'blame game'
WASHINGTON, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill argued Tuesday about who is to blame for the BP oil spill, the Bush administration or President Barack Obama.
Senior Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee used a hearing on the Interior Department's role to lay the blame on former Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy task force, The Hill reported.
Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the task force and the Bush administration pushed for drilling at the expense of tough safety oversight and reviews of environmental risks.
"The cop on the beat was off-duty for nearly a decade and this gave rise to a dangerous culture of permissiveness," Waxman said. "In many ways this history begins with Vice President Cheney's secretive energy task force."
Under the Bush-era Interior Department, "the priority was more drilling first and safety second," Waxman said.
Republican committee members responded by noting BP's actual drilling of its ill-fated well was approved under the Obama administration.
"There is going to be a time when this administration is going to have to accept some responsibility, maybe not all, but at least a smidgen, a little bit -- they are going to have to say 'yeah, this happened on our watch,'" Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., said.
WASHINGTON, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill argued Tuesday about who is to blame for the BP oil spill, the Bush administration or President Barack Obama.
Senior Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee used a hearing on the Interior Department's role to lay the blame on former Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy task force, The Hill reported.
Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the task force and the Bush administration pushed for drilling at the expense of tough safety oversight and reviews of environmental risks.
"The cop on the beat was off-duty for nearly a decade and this gave rise to a dangerous culture of permissiveness," Waxman said. "In many ways this history begins with Vice President Cheney's secretive energy task force."
Under the Bush-era Interior Department, "the priority was more drilling first and safety second," Waxman said.
Republican committee members responded by noting BP's actual drilling of its ill-fated well was approved under the Obama administration.
"There is going to be a time when this administration is going to have to accept some responsibility, maybe not all, but at least a smidgen, a little bit -- they are going to have to say 'yeah, this happened on our watch,'" Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., said.