Washington, DC – Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, released the following statement on now the seventieth day since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico:
“Seventy days after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that took the lives of 11 people and wounded 17 others, oil is still gushing and Gulf Coast communities are still suffering.
“BP and its drill rig operators created this mess and should be held accountable for the cost of cleanup, environmental remediation and economic damages to the region – not taxpayers. But Washington also needs to get its act together. It must move to ensure that big oil companies are liable for all economic damages resulting from oil spills and that the Presidential appointed commission investigating the spill has subpoena power. Washington must also own up for its failure to craft a coherent, comprehensive climate and energy policy. Such a policy should reduce the environmental impact and improve the safety of traditional energy development in the near term, and unleash the clean energy economy’s potential to create jobs and break our reliance on dirty fossil fuels in the years ahead.
“Now’s the time for action – to get the leak plugged, to prevent future disasters from occurring, and to follow Colorado’s lead in the creation of a clean energy economy that will create jobs and move our country forward.”