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Political Insight and Analysis From The Wall Street Journal's Capital Bureau
Lawmaker Apologizes to BP for White House ‘Shakedown’
By Stephen Power and Laura Meckler
It’s not every day that the White House takes off after a member of Congress. Then again, it’s not every day that a member of Congress apologizes to an oil company responsible for a massive environmental and economic disaster.
On Thursday, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, a senior House Republican, apologized to oil giant BP on behalf of the U.S. government, saying the company had been the victim of a “shakedown” engineered by the White House. He was referring to the $20 billion that BP agreed on Wednesday to put into a compensation fund for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, following hours of negotiations between BP and the White House.
Mr. Barton, speaking at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where BP CEO Tony Hayward was testifying, said the agreement set a “terrible precedent” and that he was “ashamed of what happened in the White House.’’
“There is no question that BP is liable for the damages, but we have a due process system where we go through litigation and court cases to determine what the damages are and when they should be paid,” Mr. Barton said.
Looking at Mr. Hayward, he added: “I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that is—again, in my words—amounts to a shakedown. So, I apologize.”
Mr. Hayward didn’t react immediately to Mr. Barton’s remarks, but the White House did. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued a statement attacking Barton’s comments.
“What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction,” Gibbs said in his statement. He said that “members from both parties should repudiate his comments.
