Friday, June 25, 2010

Oil Funds, Oil Options: Oil Companies Falling Short Exxon (NYSE:XOM), Shell (LSE:RDSA), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), BP (NYSE:BP)

Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts criticized BP (NYSE:BP), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Shell (LSE:RDSA), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), and Conoco Phillips (NYSE:COP) for not funding any new response and safety tools.

The tools being used in the BP oil cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico are pretty much the same tools that were used in the Exxon Valdez oil cleanup effort. Skimmers to collect the oil, booms to contain it, and the main weapon being used chemical dispersant's. Markey is proposing a bill that will broden oil options by using oil funds to the tune of $50 million being used to develop deep water drilling, and put it towards funding research for better oil spill clean up tools as well as new oil spill prevention methods.

Markey said, "the oil companies have been lying when they said they had the capacity to handle an emergency like the Deepwater Horizon spill. We can't afford to get stuck again without the tools to respond to a spill like the one we're seeing in the Gulf. It is clear that the oil companies have not created new solutions to keep their new drilling technologies safe."

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