In the Othello Outlook earlier this week, Rep. Richard Hastings has posted an opinion piece on the Gulf oil disaster. I agree with almost everything he says, especially the parts about holding those responsible accountable, making sure that BP covers all the costs of this ecological nightmare, and pressuring the government and the industry to do all it can to mitigate the damage and working to reform safety rules to prevent such calamities in the future. What our Congressman is conveniently quiet about is the fact that oversight of offshore drilling is the duty of the House Natural Resources committee. The committee that Rep. Hastings sits on. The committee that Hastings is the ranking member of.
It's unsurprising, and hardly a courageous political position, that Rep. Hastings says we need to ensure accountability in the cleanup process and that BP, not the taxpayers, should be responsible for paying for it. But the fact of the matter is, if Rep. Hastings was truly doing his job, if he actually took seriously his duty to watch out for the taxpayer, there very likely would be no spill to clean up in the first place.
The fact of the matter is, Rep. Hastings sits on only one committee. Of the 48 other members of the House Natural Resources Committee, he is the only member who doesn't sit on other committees. He wasn't too busy. At best, he was asleep at the wheel. At worst, he was pandering to the oil industry corporations who keep his bank account full.
Hastings and his gang of shills for the oil industry in Congress want you to believe that they embrace renewable energy, that they're watching out for the little guy, but he has spent his entire 16-year career defending Big Oil, working to reduce and weaken the regulations that would have prevented this spill, and working hard to ensure that companies like BP earn record profits while skimping on safety protections for their workers
The oil industry has conned the American people. They've paid out billions in dividends, and spent millions on advertising paying lip-service to environmental protection, but when the rubber hits the road, it's their own backs they're watching. It's Congress' job to watch ours. The Obama administration is right in halting production of all deepwater wells in the Gulf, as it would be insane to think we need to take the risk, however low, that more blowouts could occur with no plans in place to deal with it, just so an oil company can add to its already staggering bottom line. Until the oil companies can prove that they have a solid plan in place for dealing with these emergencies, they should not be allowed to take the risk for us.
Corporations exist to make money, and it's ridiculous for us to expect them not to try to cut costs and make more money, any way they can. The government is there to make sure that those corporations play by the rules while doing so. The 11 rig workers who died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion didn't die because BP was too cheap to invest in the proper safety equipment. They died because Congressmen, like our own Rep. Hastings, didn't have to courage to protect them.
We need a congressman who spends his time and energy working to improve the health and livelihood of the people of his district, and working families all over the country, not being a mouthpiece for Big Oil. It’s time for change. We need to stop sending career politicians back to DC over and over again.
--JAY CLOUGH, Democratic candidate for Congress in WA-04