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MARKEY'S WORK TO ENSURE CREDIBILITY OF THE FEDERAL BLOWOUT PREVENTER

As part of an investigation dating back to the 2010 BP oil spill, Senator Markey has raised concerns with the Department of Interior regarding the objectivity and credibility of the federal investigators in charge of the blowout preventer investigation for the Deepwater Horizon accident.

Specifically, Markey requested information regarding concerns that:

• Federal investigators and their contractors employed and may still be employing employees of companies who have been named as defendants in the Deepwater Horizon case brought by the Justice Department as technical consultants to the testing process.  
• Federal investigators allowed inappropriate corporate access to the testing while simultaneously barring independent government investigators the access they require and are due.
•  Statements made by federal investigators to then-Rep. Markey and the media contained omissions and inaccuracies.


Timeline 


• March 28, 2011: Markey questions Department of the Interior on deepwater drilling safety in light of recent findings of fundamental flaws in blowout preventer design.


• February 2, 2011: Markey sent a follow up letter to the Department of the Interior.


• January 28, 2011: Markey received a response from Department of Interior to his January 7, 2011 letter.


• January 7, 2011: Markey sent a new letter to the Department of Interior raising concerns about the investigation's credibility.


• December 23, 2011: Congressman Markey received a response to his letter from the Department of Interior.  The response and other materials obtained by Congressman Markey raised additional concerns.


• December 21, 2011: Congressman Markey asked the federal investigators in charge of the blowout preventer investigation for the Deepwater Horizon accident to respond to serious concerns about the objectivity and credibility of its  investigation.  A copy of the letter sent to the Department of the Interior on can be found HERE with additional attachments: 1 attachment , 2 attachment . 

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