Mississippi Governor: Oil slick is not toxic, not particularly damaging

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Gov. Haley Barbour on the BP Oil Spill

By The Situation Room

BLITZER: With a potentially crippling oil spill flowing towards its coastline, Mississippi is no stranger to disaster. Governor Haley Barbour was hailed for his handling of Hurricane Katrina. Now, there's another crisis, a serious one. Governor Barbour is joining us.

Thanks very much, Governor, for coming in.

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR ( R ), MISSISSIPPI: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: How worried should the folks in Mississippi be right now about the beautiful coastline along the Gulf of Mexico?

BARBOUR: Well, we need to be prepared. My view of this is when you pray for the best, prepare for the worst. But a lot of people are assuming that this is going to be catastrophic, and that is not a safe assumption.

Right now, there's no oil within 50 miles of the Mississippi. Eighty percent of the oil slick, as it's called and appropriately -- 80 percent is literally just sheen or film right on top of -- on top of the water. That is not toxic. It's not particularly damaging.

...

BLITZER: I was just reading a story. The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says it's time now to stop drilling or at least stop expanding oil drilling off the California coast until they get to the bottom of what happened in the Gulf of Mexico. Would that be wise right now to stop offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?

BARBOUR: Well, it certainly wouldn't be wise to stop the Gulf of Mexico. We've drilled thousands and thousands and thousands of oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. And this -- this collapse and this spill is very, very, very fierce, but it is also one out of thousands of wells that have been drilled. We produce about 30 percent of the nation's oil in the Gulf of Mexico. We produce -- we used to produce about 25 percent of the natural gas. That percentage is declining, but oil drilling in our gulf has been safe 40 years, even through Katrina. Now we've had a terrible accident and incident. We need to get to the bottom of it, but we don't need to shut it down.

BLITZER: Senators Shelby and Sessions of Alabama, your next door neighbor over there say that BP will have to pay every penny of this back for this disaster. I want you to listen to what they just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS ®, ALABAMA: I would just say it this way. They're not too big to pay. If they can't pay, and it takes everything they got, they should cease to exist and the -- that will happen.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY ®, ALABAMA: In the meantime, I hope they don't go break. I hope they thrive. In the meantime, there's a lot of sources, a lot of insurance, and assets they have, and they're going to have to step up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you hold BP responsible and should they pay the entire bill?

BARBOUR: Absolutely. That's the law. The 1990 oil pollution law of the United States. That exactly what the law says.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/03/gov_haley_barbour_on_the_bp_oil_spill_105438.html