Markey Questions U.S. Estimate on Residual Gulf Oil

REPRESENTATIVE EDWARD J. MARKEY

A leading House Democrat on Thursday joined a growing chorus criticizing a federal estimate of the remaining amount of crude oil from the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster that environmentalists and academic officials call misleading.

(By Geof Koss, CQ Staff) — Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, questioned whether the highly publicized estimate — which concluded that roughly 75 percent of the estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil released in the spill has been captured, dispersed or evaporated — was overly optimistic.

“Overconfidence breeds complacency and complacency is what got us into this and the first place,” Markey said, during a rare recess subcommittee hearing on the effects of the spill on Gulf seafood.

He echoed criticism of the administration for including in its estimate the 800,000 gallons of crude oil that were captured at the well head, and therefore never actually entered the ocean.

“The only percent the American people are concerned about is the 4.1 million barrels that actually went into the ocean,” Markey said. “People should have a very good understanding of what percent of that has been removed.”

Ian MacDonald, an oceanography professor at Florida State University, said including the captured oil in the estimate inflates the total by 17 percent. He challenged an Aug. 4 comment by top White House environmental adviser Carol Browner that “more than three quarters of the oil is gone” as a “statement that does not stand up to scrutiny.”

Bill Lehr, a senior scientist for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), defended the inclusion of the captured oil in the estimate as “standard procedure.” He later conceded to Markey that oil that had evaporated or was dispersed is still present. “Most of that is still in the environment,” he said.

Markey estimated the volume of remaining oil at between 60 percent and 90 percent of the total released, or roughly between 2.4 million and 3.6 million barrels. He urged the federal government to release the full oil “budget,” which Lehr said is still undergoing internal peer review that may take two months to complete.

“You shouldn’t have released it until you knew it was right,” Markey said of the preliminary estimates released earlier this month.”To me that is unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa of California, said Lehr told congressional aides yesterday that the report had been released by the White House — not by NOAA — before data supporting the assertions was compiled and in advance of peer review.

“It is deeply troubling that White House officials apparently pre-empted the completion and review of a scientific study on the oil spill by NOAA scientists in order to tout conclusions that many experts believe may be deeply flawed,” Issa said in a statement released Thursday. “This irresponsible action only adds to the perception that the Obama White House is more concerned about appearing competent than actually making sure the massive oil spill in the Gulf gets cleaned up as quickly as possible.”

Markey also questioned officials from the EPA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the toxicity of the large volumes of dispersants used to break down oil and heavy metals from petroleum.

While the FDA has said early studies show low risk to seafood from the dispersants in the short term, Markey noted that little is known about “the long-term impacts that these compounds will have on marine life,” including in combination with other toxic compounds in seafood.

Paul Anastas, the assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, said long-term monitoring will continue to improve understanding of the effects of dispersants.

“We will persist in asking the hard questions until we fully understand the effects of the BP oil spill,” he said.

Congressman Ed Markey, (D-MA) Chairman of Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, sent a letter to BP Tuesday asking the company for many answers including why money has yet to be distributed for the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI), how the Advisory Committee was selected, and how they will make certain that Gulf scientists are more involved. Congressman Markey’s letter addressed to BP America’s President and CEO Lamar McKay stated that he is concerned that it has been almost two months since the GRI and Request for Proposal have been issued without any next steps. Click here to view the letter.

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