GOP congressman: BP oil spill is a ‘statistical anomaly’
Rep. John Culberson (R-Tex.) writes an open letter to President Obama that indicates — accidentally or not — why Republicans prefer to raise questions about the administration’s response to the disaster in the gulf than to re-open the debate on offshore drilling. The Interior Department’s moratorium on deepwater drilling, writes Culberson, is "based more on emotion than fact."
The Deepwater Horizon incident was a terrible human tragedy with devastating environmental consequences, but it must be viewed in the proper historical context as a statistical anomaly. The government’s own records show that since 1985, more than 7 billion barrels of oil have been produced in federal offshore waters with less than 0.001 percent spilled – a 99.999% record for clean operations. That 35-year record of safety should not be ignored in the haste to respond to public discord.
That 0.001% has been a bit of a problem, hasn’t it? The rest of the letter, slightly more convincing, is below the fold.
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Right Now – GOP congressman: BP oil spill is a ‘statistical anomaly’