Energy Committee liveblog now

( – promoted by ek hornbeck)

got a late start this morning… live webcast here

UPDATE #3: almost noon (moved updates 1 & 2 below the fold)

Beginning Q & A now, but Senators may leave to go vote  and come back. Hearing to continue without interruption. Will add notes, updates down below.

12:04PM… RECESS.

12:16PM … they’re back but I’m not!

12:33PM: Wyden up.

12:39PM: oh jeezuz. Menendez leads in with: “We are sitting in the exact same room where hearings/inquiries (?) were conducted after the sinking of the Titanic.”

RESCHEDULED FULL COMMITTEE HEARING:

The purpose of the hearing is to review current issues related to offshore oil and gas development (SR-325). OVERFLOW ROOM, SD-366.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

10:00 AM

Watch this hearing live!

The purpose of the hearing is to review current issues related to offshore oil and gas development including the Department of the Interior’s recent five year planning announcements and the accident in the Gulf of Mexico involving the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon (SR-325). OVERFLOW ROOM, SD-366.

Note: originally scheduled for May 6, 2010.

Witnesses

Panel 1

Dr. F.E. Beck – Associate Professor, Texas A&M University

Mr. Danenberger – Former Chief, Offshore Regulatory Program, Minerals Management Service

Panel 2

Mr. Lamar McKay – President and Chairman , BP America, Inc.

Mr. Steven Newman – President and Chief Executive Officer, Transocean Limited

Mr. Tim Probert – President, Global Business Lines; Chief Health, Safety and Environmental Officer, Halliburton

Committee Members

Democrats

Chairman Jeff Bingaman (NM)

Byron L. Dorgan (ND)

Ron Wyden (OR)

Tim Johnson (SD)

Mary L. Landrieu (LA)

Maria Cantwell (WA)

Robert Menendez (NJ)

Blanche Lincoln (AR)

Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)

Evan Bayh (IN)

Debbie Stabenow (MI)

Mark Udall (CO)

Jeanne Shaheen (NH)

Republicans

Lisa Murkowski (AK)

Richard Burr (NC)

John Barrasso (WY)

Sam Brownback (KS)

James E. Risch (ID)

John McCain (AZ)

Robert Bennett (UT)

Jim Bunning (KY)

Jeff Sessions (AL)

Bob Corker (TN)

UPDATE 1: 11:20 am Eastern… Committee is questioning Panel 1 now, Texas A&M prof Dr. Beck openly states he’s not ‘an expert on deepwater drilling’. MMS Danenberger… well… exactly what you’d expect. So far, it’s just Menendez and Wyden with the hardball Q’s.

Will be interesting to see who all is there after lunch…. hopefully Bernie Sanders. Where the heck is he? (edit: he’s on C-Span2 with Finance stuff)  (OT edit2 around 12:30PM: Audit the Fed passes 96 – 0

UPDATE 2: oops. Panel 2 up now.

McKay/BP: “three months” until relief well #2, and #1, to be done…

BP will pay cleanup costs and also losses and damages caused by it…

we know that we will be judged by our response to this crisis…

no resource available to this company will be spared…”

Newman/Transocean… is sad. … Conducting investigations, cant’ work on prevention until determine cause.

and now, Mr. Tim Probert – President, Global Business Lines; Chief Health, Safety and Environmental Officer, Halliburton … British accent. Blaming the BOP did not function as expected. More of that.

UPDATE #3 continued: Q & A portion.

Murkowski gives a re-cap of all the fingerpointing…. then says there’s plenty of time for that, lets remember we’re all in this together. Goes on to ask about the disbursents, is it being implemented with no delays, like Exxon Valdez had? What about the testing?

Holy crap.

Probert/Halliburton: yes the data was collected, butno I can’t comment on what the results were or what that data tells us.

Murkowski, my paraphrase: bullshit! why the hell not?!

Recess.