Suddenly the Republican mantra of "drill, baby, drill," all makes sense ... after all, the oil companies have plans to deal with situations like BP's Deepwater Horizon rig catastrophe.
And during today's House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee hearing on the oil spill, Rex Tillerson, the Chairman and CEO of Exxon-Mobil, explained how his company would have jumped into action had it been one of their wells that blew:
TILLERSON: We would have been ready to implement our oil spill response plan.
STUPAK: That's that nine page plan, right?
TILLERSON: That's that 500 page plan you referred to.
STUPAK: Okay, there's only nine on oil removal, 40 on media, nine on oil removal. So that nine pages would have been able to prevent the oil from hitting the Gulf shores?
TILLERSON: The nine page plan would have done what the nine page plan says it's intended to do, and it says to the maximum extent practicable.
And if you're thinking nine pages seems pretty skimpy, consider this -- Exxon-Mobil's disaster plan is designed to control a spill that's putting out 166,000 gallons barrels per day versus the measly 40,000 gallons barrels per day the BP oil well is spewing.
So, why hasn't Exxon-Mobil swooped in to save the day, not to mention the Gulf of Mexico and the economies of five states? That would be because Exxon-Mobil's plan was written by the same contractor used by BP. Uh-oh.
So, how does Exxon-Mobil's, and every other oil giant, oil spill response plan really work?
TILLERSON: The answer to that is that when these things happen, we are not well-equipped to deal with them ... It's the scenario that the MMS and the Coast Guard require us to calculate using their methodologies and that's why it's in there. But to your point, and I think that's all that matters is, the point is, we have to take every step to prevent these things from happening because when they happen, it is a fact that we're not well equipped to prevent any and all damage ... but there is no response capability that will guarantee you will never have an impact. It does not exist and it probably will never exist.
Watch it:
And in other news, today a pair of House and Senate Republicans introduced a bill to lift the six-month moratorium on offshore drill designed to investigate "the causes of the spill and ways to prevent future accidents before allowing new drilling starts."
And why not? The oil companies do have their plans ready to be implemented.