At the Energy and Commerce Sub-Committee hearing on Capitol Hill today, Ranking Republican Joe Barton from Texas (6th District) personally apologized to BP, describing the $20 billion escrow fund set aside by the oil giant to pay claims as a “shakedown” by the White House and a “slush fund”. Barton made his apology to BP in opening remarks before a sub-committee investigating what went wrong into the days leading up to the Deepwater Horizon Oil rig disaster.
According the Barton, “I am ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. A $20 billion shakedown.” He said that the request for the escrow fund sets a “terrible precedent for the future” and that he is ashamed that a private corporation was exposed to a $20 billion shakedown. In his view he said, there is no legal standing for such a fund.
White House Spokesman, Robert Gibbs reacted sharply following Barton’s remarks saying that “What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.”
BP CEO Tony Hayward is likely to come under tough questioning as the hearing get underway.
