BP Hearing – Tony Hayward Q/A begins…
Update 4:15pm EST: Charlie Melancon D-LA just asked Hayward if BP will cover the $350 Million A MONTH in lost wages for the companies shutting down due to this..boy that figure really puts the 100M they put aside in perspective eh? Let’s see what Tony says….
Tony says “we’ve made a contribution having been asked to by the government to a fund that will be part of the funding for that issue.”
Melancon “Do you think that’s adequate? Given the expenses of the industry, you’ve been in the industry you know the costs…”
Tony: “We’ve made a contribution,k we’ve set aside 20Billion for claims”
Hayward is really testy on this. Melancon “the 20B is for OTHER claims”. Yeah BP is not gonna pay more than 100m for the closed in deep well drilling methinks.
Oh low blow! Melancon says the widow of one of the lost 11 asked why is money more important than someone’s life and he wants Hayward to respond to that. Hayward says ‘it isn’t…nothing comes before safety, it’s something I believe personally and passionately”.
God Bless the workers and the people of the Gulf., (that’s from MiM)
Hayward is repeating what it seems will be their defense, that he believes that the drill work was carried out because ‘EVERYONE’ on the rig agreed it should be (ie TransOcean, he is gonna take them all down, this was in response to Melancon citing the widows’ relating their husbands had said TransOcean kept pushing safety and there were concerns before the accident and BP kept pushing ahead).
Update 3:40pm EST: What we have learned this afternoon from Tony Hayward: ‘Yes, today is Thursday.’
Seriously. Best questioning of the day IMo has come from Rep. Cliff Stearns R-FL who just asked Hayward a series of 6 Y/N questions. Hayward will not admit any evidence of ‘reckless’ behaviour or decisions by BP on the Deepwater Horizon.
Stearns nicely demonstrated how indefensible that position is today, 60 days into it, in light of the testimony yesterday of the other Big Oil Execs who all said BP was reckless.
Hayward also says no one has been fired. Stearns asks why? Hayward ‘we are awaiting results of our investigation’. Stearns wants to know what kind of investigation it is that cannot in 60 days ascertain the reckless behavior of the BP employees who said things in emails like ‘who cares? it’s done we’ll get a fine’.
Stearns wants to know if the BP internal investigation takes 3 years will these employees still be at work then? Hayward gives his canned reply, ‘as soon as we learn anything from our investigation we will act upon it’.
Stearns nicely got Hayward to say Yes it is Thursday so he could pass the baton back to Chair Stupak with a ‘Well I got him to say it was Thursday Mr Chair’.
Joe Barton R-TX was able to ask 3 questions and make the statement that his earlier remarks in no way indicate he does not find BP responsible to pay damages etc and he apologizes if anyone took them that way.
Listen Barton is right. Regardless of what BP did, a forced funding outside due process is not the way to go. And it was a shakedown, I have said it before I say it again. That is Obama’s entire focus and that is why this is spinning out of control. I do not see WH focused on MITIGATING the damages, just on the payouts. IMO that is what Barton was saying and he is spot-on.
Yesterday it was GM Senior Bond Holders stripped of recompense by Treasury stooges for big labor, Obama fired Rick Waggoner with no legal justification for doing so.
Today it is BP, whether they ultimately ARE the proper payors of the damages, which clearly they are, or not. Tomorrow it could be your 401K, seriously. Do not give any ground, ever, on due process. And lefties should be up in arms this is no different from their arguments on why they do not support stripping certain rights under the Patriot Act.
Update 2:01pm EST: Hearing about to reconvene. As Bertha Coombs on CNBC puts it, the Critters are frustrated b/c Hayward is clearly ‘lawyered up’ and is saying it is too soon to answer these questions awaiting the results of the BP investigations.
IMO the big news we got from this morning was that OTHER RIGS in GoM have the SAME design. If I were Obama I would feel it necessary to shut down the BP rigs that have this design, and I would reopen the rest.
12:33 pm EST: Hayward-‘I had no prior knowledge or involvement in the drilling of this well, none whatsoever”. Uhhh what? they need a Sarbanes Oxley sign off. Of course no Big Bank CEO that signed off on their BS ponzi accounting got prosecuted on that anyway, pfft.
Waxman is up, here we go! Oh dear Hayward said on taking CEO seat he would be ‘focused like a laser on safety’ Uh huh.
Oh boy Hayward just said MANY WELLS in the GoM have the SAME CASING AND CEMENT DESIGN! Oh shxt!
Update: Instapundit has Carville saying what Barton (and we!) said: An Offer BP Couldn’t Refuse. “Last night on CNN former Clinton Administration message man James Carville said: ‘It looks as if President Obama applied a little old-school Chicago persuasion to the oil executives.’ Making ‘offers you can’t refuse’ may be a great way to run the mob, but it is no way to run a country.” I agree. Let BP fail if its liabilities exceed its assets — don’t turn it into a government-controlled slush fund.
12:18pm EST: and away we go…CNBC is covering it on the livestream
the Critters have 30,000 pages of BP documents…everyone expects the Spanish Inquisition…Joe Barton R-TX told BP they were shaken down by the WH, we agree but it isn’t too popular a view there on the Hill..they don’t believe in Due Process but we knew that after the GM fiasco….BP cut so many corners I don’t know how Hayward can even appear to believe his internal investigation has any point to it..did Hayward not know? who made the calls?
Video: Obama and Biden meet BP Execs
Yes he is going to have Joe with him for the 20 minutes he meets with BP execs, can’t you FEEL the FIERCE URGENCY of 60 days later….
mediaite: Insult to Injury? Obama Only Meeting With BP Execs For 20 Minutes http://mediaite.com/a/icfuc -GM
Watch the entire ST: TNG episode ‘Skin of Evil’ here
WH plan: use Lame Duck Session to push cap and trade through conference cmte….
Update: Obama is trying to lure Scott Brown to his Cap and Trade agenda. Say No Scott! Say No!
Scott Brown to meet w/ Pres. Obama today on energy/climate legislation – http://is.gd/cRtKH
No. Just say NO to ANY and ALL job killing measures in this economy.
EXCLUSIVE: Phil Schiliro, the White House congressional liaison, has told the Senate to aim to take up an energy bill the week of July 12, after the July 4 break (and after the scheduled final passage of Wall Street reform). Kagan confirmation will follow, ahead of the summer break, scheduled to begin Aug. 9.
The plan is to conference the new Senate bill with the already-passed House bill IN A LAME-DUCK SESSION AFTER THE ELECTION, so House members don’t have to take another tough vote ahead of midterms.
A White House aide has the official word: “President Obama reiterated his call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation to break our dependence on oil and fossil fuels. In the coming weeks he will be reaching out to Senators on both sides of the aisle to chart a path forward. A number of proposals have been put forward from Members on both sides of the aisle. We’re open to good ideas from all sources, and will be working with Senators on a comprehensive proposal. The tragedy in the Gulf underscores the need to move quickly, and the President is committed to finding the votes for comprehensive energy legislation this year.”
Market Mover Wednesday: Housing Starts Plunge 10%, single family starts down 17.2%
Update: More good news, Fannie and Freddie are delisting from the NYSE. they will trade OTC now, and now they will be even more opaque were that possible.
But keep tilting at windmills Don Obama Quixote…God bless the gulf.
NOT unexpected for those of us who saw the ‘tax credit’ pulling demand forward. Government credits did not ‘create’ more demand they just pulled it forward …since we have a shadow inventory that could last for 2 years in this economy it is just as well they don’t build more houses, but we need something for the construction jobs…how about a WALL ON THE BORDER???
U.S. home construction plunged in May as builders remain cautious about sales prospects absent government support programs for the housing sector.
Housing starts dropped 10% the month after the government ended its tax-credit program for home buyers, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000. Permits for new construction also declined, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Single-family housing starts slid by 17.2% to an annual rate of 468,000, the lowest level in a year.
…Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected overall housing starts to drop 5.2% to a level of 637,000.
DOUBLED the ‘expectations’. BUY A CLUE economists.
True Blood Season Premiere Ratings Soar, up 38% over S2…
Couldn’t find ANY really good economic data today (and tomorrow home sales data should be sheer awful), but hey True Blood’s ratings were way up! Do the coming Cantor Fitzgerald movie futures cover Cable shows?! We could make a killing…
HBO’s third season “True Blood” premiere drew 5.1 million viewers Sunday night. That’s up 38% from the season two opener, plus up 19% from the season two average performance. If you add the 1.3 million viewers from the 11 p.m. replay, “Blood” wound up with 6.4 million viewers.
Now, this is not an all-time high for the show, which has crested 5.3 million for a single airing in the past. But “True Blood” typically gathers ratings strength over the course of its season…
BP Oil Spill and Team Obama
Karl Rove discusses the Epic Fail of Obama during this crisis on Greta last night:
This is what is freaking out the Democrats:
Two record-low three-day job approval ratings in the past week helped Obama's weekly average tie the lowest of his presidency. Gallup reported a 44% approval rating last Thursday and again on Saturday. Prior to last week, the lowest three-day approval figure for Obama in Gallup Daily tracking had been 45%, a percentage that has now been reached seven times since the start of April.
Jake Tapper summarizes the many positions of Team Obama to date, none of which is getting the job done:
Oil Executives testify on the Hill
Update: Afternoon session of hearings cancelled due to protester disturbances…
CNBC live feed here
Waxman should be teeing up the industry for Obama to hit in his address to the nation tonight…
will the executives of the other big oil companies throw BP under the bus? Is it fair to ask since BP has dragged the entire industry under the wheels of the Obama Administration?
…U.S. lawmakers will ask Lamar McKay why BP made repeated choices that appeared to favor cost savings over safety before its rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico….
…McKay, the head of BP America, will be surrounded at the congressional hearings by executives from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell seeking to stave off repercussions for the industry.McKay’s rivals are likely to hang him out to dry in a rush to prove their companies would never take such risks or face such failures as the spill that has poured millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
“This incident represents a dramatic departure from the industry norm in deepwater drilling,” Exxon Mobil Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said in prepared testimony….
ginaswo
