Internal Docs Show BP Downplayed Spill

As if we needed another reason to be angry at BP: Recently released internal documents reveal that the company has been publicly dishonest about its worst-case-scenario estimates for the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) has released a document in which the energy giant noted that as much as much as 100,000 barrels, or 4.2 million gallons, of oil could enter the Gulf daily if the "blowout preventer and wellhead are removed" This number is significantly higher than its previous estimates, which have been steadily climbing since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig. Initially, BP stated that 1,000 barrels at most would flow into the Gulf, and then upped that number to 5,000. When BP came before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which Markey chairs, it raised that number to 60,000 barrels a day (or, 2.5 million gallons). Markey said that the document "raises very troubling questions about what BP knew and when they knew it," adding, "It is clear that, from the beginning, BP has not been straightforward with the government or the American people about the true size of this spill."