Mary Landrieu, her priorities in order, worries about BP and the drilling industry's reputation

[brentspeak]

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20100430/ARTICLES/100439916

“BP has appropriately taken responsibility for leading this massive cleanup, and they are fully responsible for the entire cost of this effort," Landrieu said in a statement this afternoon. "I have told BP that not only their reputation, but the reputation of the entire deepwater drilling industry, is on the line."

[Hawkeye-X]

1. She should lead on a legislation making sure BP is reponsible for every bit of oil sludge @ the Gulf

and not asking the government for a handout.

BP should be responsible for paying the those who depend on the Gulf, as their livelihood has been disrupted for at least a couple of years.

That said, every asset and profits should be tied to the Gulf. All $252.68 billion of it, and if BP wants to survive this disaster, they will have to borrow against their equity, and good luck pal.

Hawkeye-X

[Hissyspit]

10. Flashback: Landrieu Mocks Offshore Drilling Safety Concerns

http://www.jedreport.com/2010/05/flashback-landrieu-mocks-offsh.html

FLASHBACK: Landrieu mocks offshore drilling safety concerns

This has got to be an uncomfortable fact for Mary Landrieu: six months ago, in a hearing on offshore oil drilling safety, Landrieu sided with David Rainey, BP's Vice President of Exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, who had just vouched for the safety of drilling in the Gulf.

Moments after Rainey said drilling in the Gulf of Mexico "has been going on for the last fifty years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the enviroment," Landrieu derisively mocked drilling safety concerns, dismissing the risks of drilling as inconsequential.

Landrieu's comments focused on a offshore drilling disaster in Australia in which just over 800,000 gallons of oil were spilled, saying that such an accident could not occur in the United States because our safety regulations wouldn't allow such a mishap. At the time, The Hill reported:

An oil spill halfway around the world has flowed all the way to Capitol Hill and the Senate fight over offshore drilling.

The spill off the western Australian coast spewed oil into the ocean for 10 weeks, eventually engulfing a platform and the attached drilling rig in flames.

Opponents of offshore drilling are now using images from the spill as a warning sign of what could happen off the U.S. coast if expanded drilling is allowed. ... At the same hearing, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a strong oil industry ally, warned against using the spill to smear the industry’s safety record – or block new drilling off U.S. shores.

Remarkably, Landrieu made her comments sitting in front of an image of the Australian rig engulfed in flames. Pointing to it, Landrieu said: "This rig would not be allowed to operate in the United States of America."

"The fact is these things happen... Since we have 4,000 structures like this in the Gulf, I'm going to rough that we have 20,000 in the world. So, 19,999 were NOT on fire.... The oil spills from this would fill up one-third of the Reflecting Pool outside the Capitol."

[roguevalley]

20. she should be sewn up inside a dead manatee and tossed back

into the ocean. fuck her and everyone else who enables or diminishes the horror of this catastrophe.

[Oceansaway]

2. Mary Landrieu=BP Shill....nt

[Peregrine Took]

3. After she gets booted out of office she can become a lobbyist or a PR shill!

[Enrique]

4. she used the wrong pronoun

should be "...our reputation..."

[bobbolink]

5. BP is a hell of a lot more important than PEOPLE, for gawd's sake!

What would that poor woman do without that lobbyist $$$$$?

I mean, think of HER suffering, for crying in a bucket!

[suffragette]

6. She is being consistent isn't she? Consistently wrong

Here's what she was saying in Nov 2009 at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

http://blog.skytruth.org/2009/11/skytruth-testifies-at-senate-hearing.html



"The fact is, these things happen." - Senator Mary Landrieu

Louisiana's Senator Landrieu, a staunch supporter of drilling, accused us of lying to the American public and scaring them with our tales of disaster. She doesn't seem to trust the American people to be able to make up their own minds about the pros and cons of offshore drilling if they are presented with the information. All we did was testify about real things that have really happened, to make the point that despite advances in technology, mistakes are still made and accidents still happen - and with offshore oil production, the consequences still can be severe.

The senator tried to downplay the Montara spill, claiming it was only about 800,000 gallons and would only fill 1/3 of the Reflecting Pool out in front of the Capitol. Now I have no idea how she came up with that number, or how big the reflecting pool is, but I do know that the U.S. Coast Guard categorizes oil spills into three size classes: minor, medium and major. And a "major" spill is anything larger than 100,000 gallons.

Near the end of the hearing, Sen. Landrieu stood in front of a large poster of the flaming Montara oil platform, waved her hand at it, and said "These things happen."

[cascadiance]

7. Should be clarified that we don't confuse Mary Landrieu with Rear Admiral Mary Landry!

Ms. Landry is the Gulf Coast Guard Commander heading up the Coast Guard's efforts to fix the mess there...

[Laf.La.Dem.]

8. Sorry to disagree with the response to Senator Landrieu’s statement

The first thing we MUST remember that Senator Landrieu is a senator from Louisiana and the other senator from Louisiana is DAVID VITTER!! When Senator Landrieu runs for reelection the person running against her will make David Vitter look like a liberal.

We must also consider that she represents a state that gets most of it revenues from oil and many of our citizens are employed by the oil industry.

Sorry - I do not see what is wrong with her statement:

“BP has appropriately taken responsibility for leading this massive cleanup, and they are fully responsible for the entire cost of this effort," Landrieu said in a statement this afternoon. "I have told BP that not only their reputation, but the reputation of the entire deepwater drilling industry, is on the line."

[Hissyspit]

11. HERE is where she is wrong:

I actually agree that THAT particular statement is not egregious, but when you tie it to this nonsense...

http://www.jedreport.com/2010/05/flashback-landrieu-mocks-offsh.html

FLASHBACK: Landrieu mocks offshore drilling safety concerns

This has got to be an uncomfortable fact for Mary Landrieu: six months ago, in a hearing on offshore oil drilling safety, Landrieu sided with David Rainey, BP's Vice President of Exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, who had just vouched for the safety of drilling in the Gulf.

Moments after Rainey said drilling in the Gulf of Mexico "has been going on for the last fifty years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the enviroment," Landrieu derisively mocked drilling safety concerns, dismissing the risks of drilling as inconsequential.

Landrieu's comments focused on a offshore drilling disaster in Australia in which just over 800,000 gallons of oil were spilled, saying that such an accident could not occur in the United States because our safety regulations wouldn't allow such a mishap. At the time, The Hill reported:

An oil spill halfway around the world has flowed all the way to Capitol Hill and the Senate fight over offshore drilling.

The spill off the western Australian coast spewed oil into the ocean for 10 weeks, eventually engulfing a platform and the attached drilling rig in flames.

Opponents of offshore drilling are now using images from the spill as a warning sign of what could happen off the U.S. coast if expanded drilling is allowed. ... At the same hearing, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a strong oil industry ally, warned against using the spill to smear the industry’s safety record – or block new drilling off U.S. shores.

Remarkably, Landrieu made her comments sitting in front of an image of the Australian rig engulfed in flames. Pointing to it, Landrieu said: "This rig would not be allowed to operate in the United States of America."

"The fact is these things happen... Since we have 4,000 structures like this in the Gulf, I'm going to rough that we have 20,000 in the world. So, 19,999 were NOT on fire.... The oil spills from this would fill up one-third of the Reflecting Pool outside the Capitol."

[janet118]

13. She also said this . . .

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a longtime supporter of offshore oil drilling, has also called for a full investigation into the incident.

But in recent days, she has preached caution. Landrieu said that the incident should "not be used inappropriately" to halt President Obama's recent push for expansion of offshore drilling.

"Both advocates and critics of offshore drilling have recognized the significance of this tragedy... we cannot stop energy production in our country because of this incident," Ms. Landrieu said.

Huffington Post video

She either didn't know or lied when she said there were precautions that prevented that kind of accident from happening in the US. There were no protections/regulations to back up or mitigate a disaster.

[brentspeak]

15. Many Gulf citizens are (were?) also employed by the fishing/shrimping industry n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Blah Blah Blah

Mary, is that oil dripping down your chin?

[chill_wind]

12. More on her in the Washington Independent.

Landrieu: Dangers of Offshore Drilling ‘Far Outweighed’ by Benefits
By Mike Lillis 4/30/10 5:54 PM

No, that wasn’t a statement from this week. But less than six months ago, at a hearing to examine offshore drilling, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said tersely, “The risks associated with offshore oil and gas drilling domestically are far outweighed by the benefits.” (The Huffington Post has a good summary of that episode here.)

Landrieu’s tone has changed since an enormous oil spill spread out to cover hundreds of square miles across the Gulf of Mexico this week — but not by much. Indeed, though she’s called for an investigation into the accident, her recent floor speech on the topic seems more intended to downplay the significance of the spill (“97 percent of it is an extremely thin sheen of relatively light oil”) and protect the oil industry (“the industry spill rate is quite low”) than to push for precautions that might prevent the next fatal accident offshore.

We don’t believe in burying our head in the sand and pretending that the country does not need 20 million barrels of oil a day, or pretending that we can get this energy tomorrow from somewhere else. We may get it somewhere else in 20 or 30 years, but not next week, and not the month after, and not the year after.

Of note, the Louisiana lawmaker has received more than $758,000 from the oil and gas industries over her career on Capitol Hill, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — just under the amount accepted from those same companies by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), who’s calling today for federal help cleaning up the spill.

http://washingtonindependent.com/83735/landrieu-dangers-of-offshore-drilling-far-outweighed-by-benefits

[rhett o rick]

14. rec. Does anyone know if the DSCC will back her in her next primary? nm

[Tesha]

16. Of course they will. (NT)

[rhett o rick]

19. Of course. That's why I dont give them a dime. nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. So where are we going to store the mountain of pampers that it will take to

clean up the oil?

[troubledamerican]

18. Why do you hate Landrieu? Are you a Republican?

Sarcasm of course, but the fact that I had you believing this reveals a lot about DU -- no surprise

[jberryhill]

21. Volunteers reach Gulf Coast to rescue and clean oil soaked industry reputations /nt