U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON : 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800

Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001

72–582 PDF 2012

OFFSHORE DRILLING IN CUBA AND THE 

BAHAMAS: THE U.S. COAST GUARD’S OIL 

SPILL READINESS AND RESPONSE PLANNING 

(112–70) 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON 

TRANSPORTATION AND 

INFRASTRUCTURE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

JANUARY 30, 2012 

Printed for the use of the 

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

( 

Available online at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/ 

committee.action?chamber=house&committee=transportation 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE 

JOHN L. MICA, Florida, Chairman 

DON YOUNG, Alaska 

THOMAS E. PETRI, Wisconsin 

HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina 

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee 

FRANK A. LOBIONDO, New Jersey 

GARY G. MILLER, California 

TIMOTHY V. JOHNSON, Illinois 

SAM GRAVES, Missouri 

BILL SHUSTER, Pennsylvania 

SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia 

JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio 

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan 

DUNCAN HUNTER, California 

ANDY HARRIS, Maryland 

ERIC A. ‘‘RICK’’ CRAWFORD, Arkansas 

JAIME HERRERA BEUTLER, Washington 

FRANK C. GUINTA, New Hampshire 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

LOU BARLETTA, Pennsylvania 

CHIP CRAVAACK, Minnesota 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas 

LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana 

BILLY LONG, Missouri 

BOB GIBBS, Ohio 

PATRICK MEEHAN, Pennsylvania 

RICHARD L. HANNA, New York 

JEFFREY M. LANDRY, Louisiana 

STEVE SOUTHERLAND II, Florida 

JEFF DENHAM, California 

JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

CHARLES J. ‘‘CHUCK’’ FLEISCHMANN, 

Tennessee 

NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia 

PETER A. DEFAZIO, Oregon 

JERRY F. COSTELLO, Illinois 

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of 

Columbia 

JERROLD NADLER, New York 

CORRINE BROWN, Florida 

BOB FILNER, California 

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas 

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland 

LEONARD L. BOSWELL, Iowa 

TIM HOLDEN, Pennsylvania 

RICK LARSEN, Washington 

MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts 

TIMOTHY H. BISHOP, New York 

MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine 

RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri 

GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California 

DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois 

MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii 

JASON ALTMIRE, Pennsylvania 

TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota 

HEATH SHULER, North Carolina 

STEVE COHEN, Tennessee 

LAURA RICHARDSON, California 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION

FRANK A. LOBIONDO, New Jersey, Chairman 

DON YOUNG, Alaska 

HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina 

ANDY HARRIS, Maryland 

FRANK C. GUINTA, New Hampshire 

CHIP CRAVAACK, Minnesota 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas 

JEFFREY M. LANDRY, Louisiana, 

Vice Chair 

JOHN L. MICA, Florida (Ex Officio) 

RICK LARSEN, Washington 

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland 

CORRINE BROWN, Florida 

TIMOTHY H. BISHOP, New York 

MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii 

MICHAEL H. MICHAUD, Maine 

NICK J. RAHALL II, West Virginia 

(Ex Officio) 

(III) 

CONTENTS Page 

Summary of Subject Matter .................................................................................... iv 

TESTIMONY 

Baumgartner, Rear Admiral William, Commander, Seventh District, United 

States Coast Guard .............................................................................................. 10 

Carroll, Hon. Jennifer, Lieutenant Governor, State of Florida ........................... 10 

Herbst, Lars, Regional Director, Gulf of Mexico Region, Bureau of Safety 

and Environmental Enforcement, U.S. Department of the Interior ................ 10 

Payton, Debbie, Chief, Emergency Response Division, Office of Response and 

Restoration, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration ..................................................................................................... 10 

Proni, John R., Ph.D., Executive Director, Florida International University 

Applied Research Center (ARC) .......................................................................... 10 

Thomas, Rear Admiral Cari, Director of Response Policy, United States Coast 

Guard .................................................................................................................... 10 

PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED BY WITNESSES 

Baumgartner, Rear Admiral William, and Thomas, Rear Admiral Cari, joint 

statement .............................................................................................................. 39 

Carroll, Hon. Jennifer ............................................................................................. 44 

Herbst, Lars ............................................................................................................. 47 

Payton, Debbie ......................................................................................................... 51 

Proni, John R., Ph.D. ............................................................................................... 56 

iv 


Insert offset folio 1 here 72582.001
v 


Insert offset folio 2 here 72582.002
vi 


Insert offset folio 3 here 72582.003
vii 


Insert offset folio 4 here 72582.004
viii 


Insert offset folio 5 here 72582.005
ix 


Insert offset folio 6 here 72582.006
x 


Insert offset folio 7 here 72582.007
xi 


Insert offset folio 8 here 72582.008
xii 


Insert offset folio 9 here 72582.009
xiii 


Insert offset folio 10 here 72582.010
(1) 

OFFSHORE DRILLING IN CUBA AND THE 

BAHAMAS: THE U.S. COAST GUARD’S OIL 

SPILL READINESS AND RESPONSE PLANNING 

MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2012 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

COMMITTEE ON THE TRANSPORTATION AND

INFRASTRUCTURE, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME

TRANSPORTATION, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in The 

Atlantic Room, Double Tree by Hilton Ocean Point Resort and Spa, 

17375 Collins Avenue, Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, Hon. John Mica 

(Chairman of the committee) presiding. 

Present: Representatives Mica, Hultgren, Long, and Gibbs. 

Also Present: Representatives Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart, Rivera, 

and West. 

Mr. MICA. Good morning. I would like to call this hearing of the 

United States House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the Subcommittee on the United States 

Coast Guard hearing to order. 

I am pleased to be here in South Florida, and first want to welcome my colleagues who have come from across the country to be 

with us today, and I will introduce them in just a second. 

The order of business today is we will be conducting a hearing 

that will focus on Cuban and Bahamanian oil drilling off of Florida 

shores. 

The order of business will be opening statements by Members of 

Congress, then we will turn to the distinguished panel who has 

been assembled to assist our subcommittee. And we will then move 

to questions after we have heard from all the witnesses. 

I want to particularly welcome members of the committee that 

have traveled from colder climates to be with us, it is a very intense time in Washington and I know in their districts right now. 

But I am very pleased that they have joined us. I will introduce 

them: Randy Hultgren, and Randy is from the 14th District of Illinois. That is east of Chicago. Pleased to have him in this subcommittee hearing today. And Billy Long next to him, the Seventh 

District of Missouri, and southwestern Missouri, Springfield, and 

some of that area. Bob Gibbs, Bob is also the chair of the Water 

Resources Subcommittee in the House of Representatives, and he 

is the 18th District of Ohio, central Ohio. 

2 

Then we are very pleased with the response we have had from 

Members of South Florida to attend and also participate in this 

hearing today. A senior Member from South Florida is Ileana RosLehtinen, and, of course, she chairs the Foreign Affairs International Relations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. And she also is the representative from the Florida Keys, and 

of course the Miami area. 

Mario Diaz-Balart, a former and distinguished member of this 

committee, and represents us well on the Appropriations Committee. And he has the 21st District, which is, again, part of South 

Florida. David Rivera, and David has western Miami. He is one of 

the newer Members, but he also has Homestead and the Everglades. And then, Allen West, pleased that he could join us. He has 

the area from Fort Lauderdale to Jupiter, another area that may 

be impacted by the subject of this hearing. 

So, I am pleased that we have this excellent turnout of Members 

both from the committee and also from South Florida join us today. 

I will introduce the panel of witnesses and recognize them, and 

we will proceed from there. 

So, that being the preliminary introductions, we turn now to 

opening statements. And I will yield myself time, and we will go 

to other Members in the order in which I announced. 

First, I would like to ask unanimous consent that all of the Florida Members who are attending today that are not a member of 

this panel have ability to participate both to open with their opening statements, and also to ask questions. 

Without objection, so ordered. 

And they will be recognized in order after we hear from the 

members of our subcommittee and committee. 

So, with that, let me just say, the reason we are holding this 

hearing is that we have all heard about Cuba and the Bahamas 

opening their shores to offshore and maritime drilling off of Florida’s coast. As a committee, people wonder what the Transportation 

Committee is doing on this subject, and just for purpose of explanation, one of our six subcommittees is the United States Coast 

Guard Subcommittee. And our committee historically, traditionally 

has overseen the United States Coast Guard, and we have legislative jurisdiction. 

We have also conducted hearings on the Coast Guard and oil 

spills that we had in the Gulf, and we also have responsibility for 

dealing with legislation pertaining to those matters, and the Coast 

Guard, as you may know, too, is our first response agency, and it 

is important that we find out where we are in this whole process. 

So today, it is my hope that we can actually hear, and I have 

heard bits and pieces and read the beginning of some reports. I was 

quite startled last week. Folks must understand our committee has 

pretty broad jurisdiction. We are trying to get out this week an 

FAA bill and a transportation bill. We have just finished a major 

pipeline bill, a safety bill, reauthorization. But sometimes at the 

end, you do not get all of the information, so you conduct a hearing. 

But I was quite surprised to learn that, in fact, that the exploratory rigs and drilling platforms were moved into place, and as 

staff informed me last week that Cuba, in fact, may have already 

started drilling or will begin drilling. So, that was kind of startling 

3 

to find out this is not something coming; this is something that is 

actually taking place. 

I was further surprised to learn that this platform is some 56 

miles from Key West, this first platform, and another platform is 

on its way. And, again, we will find out the details. This is some 

of the information that I was provided with. 

And so, that was kind of a surprise, and I think the most important thing is we find out how we are prepared for this. We have 

a very unique diplomatic and international strained relationship 

with Cuba. The Bahamas has been fairly cooperative, and we will 

hear more about what they are doing with their plans for offshore 

drilling. 

The other thing that we will hear is we have some experts that 

can tell us on the conditions. And this area, I believe it is the Florida Straits, where we have very strong currents, which do feed into 

the Gulf Stream, and the Gulf Stream is just maybe 20 miles or 

so off this coast. So, this is not the same as the situation we found 

ourselves in with the Gulf where currents did not move quite as 

fast, and the impact might not be as great. So, that was somewhat 

surprising. 

The other fact that I have learned is, and we will get this confirmed, is the fact that, again, the purpose of this hearing is to find 

the facts. But I understand these are deep water exploratory drilling activities at 6,000 feet, which is greater than what we saw with 

the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf. Again, that concerns 

me, and I would like to hear more about that. 

Finally, we wanted to hold this hearing, and we probably could 

have done it in the city hall or maybe another facility here. But I 

thought it was important to hold the hearing with the beach and 

the ocean that is such an important treasure to Florida. Tourism 

accounts for at least a third of our economy. It is so important and 

essential not only historically, but for the future, so we can be dramatically impacted. I do not want folks to say where was the committee when they started this, and where was the Coast Guard. 

Where was the United States when they began this drilling. And 

if something happens, we do need to be prepared, and there are 

many, many issues dealing with the situation that we find ourselves in today. 

So, with those comments, again, I want to thank our Members 

for joining us. I will yield now to Mr. Hultgren from Illinois and 

welcome your opening statement. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It really is a privilege 

to be here. Thank you for hosting this committee, and I think this 

is a very important discussion for us to have, and I will be very 

brief because I want to get to the witnesses and get as much information as we possibly can during this hearing. 

I think this is so important. It is not only a treasure to Florida; 

it really is a treasure to our Nation. I come from Illinois, and we 

do not enjoy these kinds of treasures. I need to come here to enjoy 

that. But it really is very important for us, again, to see the impacts that this type of activity could have on such a wonderful resource that we have a Nation here. So, looking forward to gathering information. 

4 

Again, Chairman, thank you for calling this committee hearing, 

and looking forward to learning very much this morning. I yield 

back. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you. I will yield to the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Long. 

Mr. LONG. Thank you, Chairman, and thank you all for being 

here today. I think this is vitally important. And the Chairman’s 

right; we are not used to seeing breakers like this on the Potomac. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. LONG. So, it is a pretty good room to hold it in to see what 

kind of devastation and havoc that a spill has on this area. 

And I want to thank Congressman Rivera for his work on this 

and bringing it to everyone’s attention. I thank Chairman Mica because he is always preempting versus responsive, which I think is 

extremely, extremely important in a situation like this. And he is 

one that wants to act instead of react, so that is why we are here 

today. And thank you for your attendance. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you, and the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Gibbs. 

Mr. GIBBS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a privilege to be here. 

It is great to see the great turnout. Obviously it shows the interest 

and the concern. And as the chairman said, the Water Resources 

Environment Subcommittee had a joint hearing with the Coast 

Guard last year. We brought Coast Guard officials in to hear from 

their side what was happening and what they were doing in their 

analysis and their study, and I think we should be getting another 

update on that. 

But I think, as the chairman said, it is interesting when you look 

at Deepwater Horizon, what is happening not too far from here in 

the Cuban waters is actually deeper drilling and central for greater 

devastation. 

So, I think I want to hear from the witnesses to hear your 

thoughts on what we are doing and what we can do to improve if 

there is a spill or a problem, the best way to address that, especially when we are working with a foreign country that we do not 

have the kind of relationship we need. 

So anyways, glad to be here, and I yield back. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you, and let me recognize now Chairman RosLehtinen, welcome her to our committee. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Chairman Mica. Thank 

you for the Members for giving us, the South Florida congressional 

delegation, some of us the opportunity to testify at this very important hearing. 

The Chinese oil rig Scarabeo 9 reached Cuban waters earlier this 

month, as we all know, and reports indicate that the Spanish company Repsol and the Cuban regime have already commenced their 

preparations; they are drilling for oil. 

Instead of the Obama administration attempting to prevent oil 

drilling from occurring so close to our shores, President Obama’s 

administration have held Repsol’s hand every step of the way along 

Cuba’s coast. Some critics have argued erroneously that we should 

ease sanctions against Cuba in order to protect ourselves from an 

oil spill. This is merely a backdoor attempt to ease sanctions on the 

Cuban regime, a State Sponsor of Terrorism, because the Departments of Commerce and Treasury have already granted licenses to 

5 

U.S. companies in the event that we are threatened by an oil spill 

from Cuba. And further license agreements would not prove beneficial to U.S. foreign policy. 

But the concerns go well beyond Repsol. Reports indicate that 

Malaysia’s company, Petronas, in cooperation with Russia’s Stateowned Gazprom, will be the next lease holder to drill for oil in 

Cuban waters. These are the same companies that helped the Iranian regime develop its energy sector, and by doing so, gave Iran 

the financial resources to pursue its nuclear weapons program. 

These companies do not care about U.S. security concerns, nor 

our immediate environmental safety. The media, of course, has 

stated that the oil drilling in Cuba would take place just perhaps 

50 miles off the Florida Keys or Florida Straits, an area that I am 

so proud to represent. This is three times as close as operations located in U.S. waters are permitted to drill. An oil spill off the coast 

of Cuba would take mere days to reach the fragile shores of Florida. 

We cannot prevent Repsol from drilling now, but we can apply 

pressure to these companies and these countries that seek to drill 

next. 

I urge my congressional colleagues to push the Obama administration to act in order to prevent new potential leaseholders from 

moving forward so that we can prevent the Castro brothers from 

becoming the oil tycoons of the Caribbean. We can deter companies 

like Petronas, like PDVSA, like Gazprom from exploratory drilling 

in Cuban waters through tools that are already available to us, as 

well as implement new measures in order to guarantee that entities think twice before entering into agreements with a U.S. State 

Sponsor of Terrorism. 

My colleagues and I have introduced legislation that takes further steps in order to deter companies and individuals from entering into oil agreements with the Castro regime, as well as prevent 

an oil spill just miles from our beautiful coral reefs. 

I have authored the Caribbean Coral Reef Protection Act, legislation that would sanction companies and individuals who aid the 

Castro brothers in their oil drilling activities. My colleague from 

South Florida, Congressman David Rivera, has introduced the Foreign Oil Spill Liability Act in order to apply liabilities and penalties faced by foreign entities if an oil spill were to reach U.S. 

shores. In addition, Mr. Rivera’s legislation would seek to triple the 

liabilities cap for spills that originate from a State Sponsor of Terrorism. 

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Rivera’s bill has been referred exclusively to 

your committee, so I hope that you and your colleagues consider 

this legislation as soon as possible. 

Also, passage of the bipartisan Caribbean Coral Reef Protection 

Act and the Foreign Oil Liabilities Act would discourage individuals, discourage companies, and countries from engaging with the 

Castro brothers in their dangerous oil drilling scheme because it 

would enforce sanctions and apply liability caps. These pieces of 

legislation ensure that if an oil spill reached U.S. shores, the American people and American businesses would be properly compensated. 

6 

An oil spill off the coast of Cuba would wreak havoc not only on 

our environment, but also, as you pointed out, Mr. Chairman, on 

the tourism industry in Florida, impacting our economy through 

this difficult downturn in our State. 

The United States cannot stand idly by as the Castro brothers 

enter into these oil drilling agreements with companies like the 

Russian-owned Gazprom, or the Venezuelan-owned PDVSA, which 

has already been sanctioned by the U.S. due its dealings with the 

Iranian regime. 

President Obama has failed miserably to use any and all means 

available to prevent Repsol from drilling, and now we must deal 

with the results of this administration’s dangerous complacency. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity. 

Mr. MICA. Thank the gentlelady. I would recognize now a former 

member of the panel, Mr. Diaz-Balart. Welcome. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Always a privilege 

to be with you, sir. I want to thank also the members of the committee for bringing attention, you, Mr. Chairman, the members, to 

this very important matter. 

I also want to thank the Lieutenant Governor, the Federal Government agencies that are here, the Coast Guard, NOAA, the Department of Interior, and FIU with Dr. Proni, for testifying here 

this morning. 

Cuba, as the chairman of the International Relations Committee 

has mentioned, is a U.S. designated State Sponsor of Terrorism, 

which is directly responsible for acts of international terrorism, 

harbors fugitives from U.S. law, actively partners with other terrorist States, such as Iran and Syria, and terrorist groups, such as 

Hezbollah and FARC, just to name a few. 

This is a regime that does not have transparency. It does not 

have any accountability. It does not have the ability to or the will 

frankly to either protect its people, its coastline, and much less the 

coastline of the United States of America. 

In Florida, Mr. Chairman, as you well know, we have 800 miles 

of beautiful beaches you can see if you right outside the window. 

More than $2.5 trillion in insured coastal property, and a $60 billion tourism industry, all, all for which are as safe here. 

And, again, we are dealing with a regime that for decades, up to 

the 1980s, was actually asking for unilateral nuclear strikes 

against the United States. I do not think we should think that they 

are going to be too concerned about protecting all of that that I just 

mentioned. 

Despite this, the U.S. administration, our administration, appears to be providing assistance, guidance, and advice even to 

Repsol now to most quickly and efficiently channel dollars to the 

terrorism business partner of Repsol, the Cuban regime. So, while 

preparing for disaster is certainly important, prevention obviously, 

though, is better. 

When Secretary Salazar went to Spain and met with Repsol, he 

should have and he could have strongly dissuaded that Spanish 

company from any drilling in Cuban waters. He did not. He made 

no real attempt to stop it. 

So, even if this support may not technically violate the Trading 

with the Enemy Act, TRSA, the Cuban Democracy Act, and ‘‘Hub’’ 

7 

known as the Helms-Burton Act. The administration certainly is 

not acting consistently with the principles underlying those laws 

which are meant to prevent a terrorist regime that brutally oppresses its people and is a threat to our national security. 

Because we are dealing, Mr. Chairman, with a close terrorist 

State that has no transparency, no safeguards, and cannot be 

trusted, and since, I deeply fear, that the administration of President Obama is allowing for a potential disaster, I must once again 

really thank you, Mr. Chairman, and this committee for bringing 

out this issue, for talking about this issue, and for having this 

hearing. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to our colleagues. 

Mr. MICA. Thank the gentleman. Let me recognize Mr. Rivera 

now. 

Mr. RIVERA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for having 

this hearing. Thanks to all of the committee members that have 

traveled to come down to South Florida, even though, as we can see 

from the scene around us, it is not such a bad place to have a hearing. 

I also want to thank the witnesses for taking the time to come 

here today, particularly my former colleague in the House of Representatives, Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll, who is doing 

such a wonderful job not only promoting Florida, but her presence 

here demonstrates how important it is for her and for Governor 

Rick Scott to protect Florida and protect Florida’s natural resources 

and our economic interests. 

From many dangers that are posed by what is going on right now 

off the coast of Cuba, dangers that first and foremost would impact 

our region, the southern cone of Florida, as one of those maps so 

clearly demonstrates, the map all the way to the right. When you 

look at the loop current, you will see immediately who will be impacted if there is any accident off the coast of Florida. And that is, 

first and foremost, the Florida Keys and the entire South Florida 

region. 

And we need to make sure that those dangers that are represented by the activities off of Cuba are prevented to the greatest 

extent possible. Right now, we know there will be no protection 

whatsoever from the Castro dictatorship. The Castro brothers will 

certainly have no concern with respect to the environmental integrity of Florida or the United States. We know what their dismal 

environmental record is in Cuba, and we need to make sure that 

we hold all parties accountable. 

As has already been stated, the Obama administration has made 

no effort whatsoever to dissuade this activity. In fact, by not dissuading them, they have encouraged the Castro dictatorship to 

move forward. 

So, since we are not going to do anything with respect to the 

Castro dictatorship certainly in this administration, we need to 

make sure to ensure that all the parties that are collaborating with 

the regime are also held responsible and understand that they will 

be liable as well. 

Chairman Ros-Lehtinen mentioned earlier my legislation, the 

FOSL bill, which I think makes the point that legislation is needed 

8 

to increase sanctions on collaborators of the regime, as well as the 

regime itself. 

We know that the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 ensured that if there 

is a rig disaster in American waters, the responsible party must 

pay for all cleanup costs, and to reimburse the Oil Liability Trust 

Fund up to $1 billion to pay out claims. However, if that same accident happened off the coast of a foreign nation and the oil reached 

American waters and beaches, the Oil Liability Trust Fund would 

pay $150 million for cleanup and up to $850 million for claims. 

The Attorney General has existing authority to seek compensation for the fund from the responsible party, but the most they 

would have to pay is $1 billion. If the spill exceeds $1 billion, then 

the American taxpayer, or the affected States in this case, certainly 

the State of Florida, would have to pay the difference. 

So, my legislation, the Foreign Oil Spill Liability Act, will ensure 

the responsible foreign party pays for all cleanup costs by applying 

the Oil Pollution Act to them as well. 

Furthermore, the bill would also apply the Clean Water Act penalties on the responsible foreign party. So, therefore, if the rig was 

operated in the waters of a U.S. State Department designated 

State Sponsor of Terrorism, then the liabilities and penalties on the 

responsible party would be tripled. 

This is the only way I believe that we will be able to move this 

administration toward a more proactive policy of ensuring that 

State Sponsors of Terrorism, as Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart so 

eloquently stated, and which Cuba is one of those listed on the official list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, as designated by our Government, make sure countries like those and their collaborators, 

their private sector collaborators from around the world, understand that they are going to be held responsible if anything happens to the coast of Florida as a result of their activities in working 

with a terrorist dictatorship like the Castro dictatorship, to promote their economic interests. 

So, not only do we need to make sure and make the public aware 

of the dangers represented by having the Castro dictatorship participate in this type of activity, but we need to make sure their collaborators are aware that we are going to hold them responsible as 

well for any activity or any participation they may have with that 

dictatorship. 

And with that, I yield back. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. MICA. Thank the gentleman. We will now recognize and welcome Mr. West to be recognized. 

Mr. WEST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me OK? 

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, 

and other members of this panel from outside of the State of Florida for hosting today’s important hearing down here in Florida. 

Also welcome to our Lieutenant Governor Carroll, dear friend of 

mine, Admiral Baumgartner, and the other members of this panel. 

I just want to say that I sit on two committees, the Armed Services Committee and also the Small Business Committee. And when 

I think about the fact that 2 weeks ago the President of Iran, 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was visiting the nation of Cuba. So for 

me, this is an economic issue. It is an economic security issue, and 

9 

it is also a national security issue. And I thank the chairman for 

bringing this issue here for us to understand. 

Let me first state that I strongly support all of the above energy 

approach that includes development of natural gas, clean coal, and 

American produced oil, as well as alternative energy sources, such 

as wind, solar, hydro power, nuclear, geothermal, and biomass. 

Offshore drilling is an important part of this type of comprehensive energy plan. However, it is critical that offshore oil and gas 

exploration be conducted in a safe and responsible manner, a balanced regulatory structure which does everything possible to avoid 

another disaster, while ensuring that this vital component of our 

energy portfolio can continue safely and will provide the best solution. 

The Obama administration is not only aware that Spain’s Stateowned energy company, Repsol, has entered into an agreement 

with the Cuban regime to drill off Cuba’s coast, and that a Chinese 

built deep water oil rig will be used for this project. The Department of Interior has been actively providing assistance, guidance, 

and technical advice to Repsol. This is inconsistent with numerous 

U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives our country has 

with regards to Cuba. 

Let me perfectly clear. Offshore drilling by foreign companies in 

Cuba’s territorial waters is incredibly dangerous to the State of 

Florida. And make no mistake, Cuba, through their Chinese allies, 

will find a way to engage in slant drilling that would tap oil from 

the intercontinental shelf. The assistance from the Department of 

Interior to Repsol will result in a financial windfall to the Cuban 

regime. You have heard other Members address this. 

And if this were not troubling alone, it may also facilitate processes that could lead to an environmental disaster off the Florida 

coast, with which the United States would have no jurisdiction. 

Tourism is the lifeblood of the economy in South Florida. A lot 

of small businesses depend upon that. Our beaches, cruise ports, 

two of which Congressional District 22 I have the privilege of representing, Port Everglades and the Port of Palm Beach. And waterways for what brings millions of tourists and boaters to this area 

every year. An environmental disaster on par with the Deepwater 

Horizon accident, but this time by a foreign company using Chinese 

made equipment operated within Cuban territory would be a disaster for our beaches and ecosystems that is located just 90 miles 

from mainland Cuba, and an absolute nightmare in terms of economic costs. 

If an accident occurred by foreign-owned Chinese made equipment operated within Cuban territory, who do you think would 

clean up the mess, China? Cuba? Or the United States Coast 

Guard? The bill payers will be you, the American taxpayer. And 

the victims? South Florida’s beaches, its ecosystem, and tourism. 

The Oil Pollution Act quite simply does not have sufficient taxpayer protections for major spills that originate in foreign waters. 

And that is why I have joined with my colleague, and I co-sponsored and strongly support the Foreign Oil Spill Liability Act by 

Congressman Rivera, which requires the responsible party to pay 

for the cleaning up of their spill regardless of where it originates 

10 

from, and holding them to the same civil liability consequences an 

American company would face in the event of a spill. 

Our coastal communities need peace of mind that if they are impacted by a foreign spill, resources are available to cover their 

losses. The American taxpayers should not have to foot the bill to 

bail out the irresponsible behavior of foreign companies. 

It goes without saying that the topic of this hearing is incredibly 

important, and the consequences of the administration’s actions to 

date could be significant for our State as well as our local communities. 

I look forward to hearing from each one of you on your perspectives on this matter, and have high hopes that the decisionmakers 

within the Obama administration will take note of what is being 

said today. 

And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back my time. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you, Mr. West, and all of the Members for their 

opening comments. 

And without objection, we will leave the record open for 2 additional weeks for additional submission by Members and for the 

record. 

We will turn now to the next order of business is to hear from 

our witnesses. And let me say at the outset, I am absolutely delighted that the Lieutenant Governor could join us today. I did not 

think that the Lieutenant Governor would be able to be with us. 

There is a slight thing happening in the background there. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. MICA. There is also a little action going on in Tallahassee 

which happens to be our legislative session, in which as a former 

member, she is very actively involved and the key player. So, I cannot thank her enough to break away and come down here and address this issue. And it is an important issue to the State of Florida, but I am very pleased that you would join us today. 

I will recognize you first, and I know you have to return after 

you comment. But on behalf of our panel and a tough time in the 

State, we appreciate your being here, and you are recognized for 

comment. 

TESTIMONY OF HON. JENNIFER CARROLL, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, STATE OF FLORIDA; REAR ADMIRAL WILLIAM 

BAUMGARTNER, COMMANDER, SEVENTH DISTRICT, UNITED 

STATES COAST GUARD; REAR ADMIRAL CARI THOMAS, DIRECTOR OF RESPONSE POLICY, UNITED STATES COAST 

GUARD; DEBBIE PAYTON, CHIEF, EMERGENCY RESPONSE 

DIVISION, OFFICE OF RESPONSE AND RESTORATION, NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION; LARS HERBST, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, GULF OF MEXICO REGION, BUREAU OF SAFETY AND 

ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF 

THE INTERIOR; AND JOHN R. PRONI, PH.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY APPLIED 

RESEARCH CENTER (ARC) 

Ms. CARROLL. Thank you, Chairman Mica, and Members. Chairman Mica, you are definitely a visionary because a picture speaks 

volumes and a thousand words. 

11 

Mr. Chairman and Members, thank you for the opportunity to 

speak to the committee today to outline the State of Florida’s concerns and preparedness to respond to oil spills in light of the looming oil drilling off the coast of Cuba. 

The Communist government of Cuba and its leader, Rau ́l Castro, 

according to the Department of State, continues to hamper private 

sector growth with tight restrictions on supply of goods and labor, 

high taxation that discourages hiring and profits, a ban on professional entrepreneurs, limited access to transportation and credit, a 

monopoly on importation, legal uncertainty, and lack of transparency, and a host of other disincentives and restrictions. 

With this track, Cuba cannot be trusted to provide even the bare 

essentials to its own citizens, and it certainly cannot be trusted to 

oversee safe and environmentally sound oil drilling only 90 miles 

off the pristine Florida coast. 

With these facts in mind, over the past year under the direction 

of Governor Rick Scott, the State of Florida has endeavored to be 

prepared for any drilling-related disaster that may impact Florida’s 

shores. 

Florida’s preparedness plan has three main aspects: emergency 

management, led by Bryan Koon, the director of Division of Emergency Management, economic, led by Gray Swoope, who is the Secretary of Commerce and president of Enterprise Florida, and environmental, led by Herschel Vinyard, secretary of Department of 

Environmental Protection. 

The Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010 has shown us that a 

spill that poses even a potential of impact on Florida’s water or 

land causes a huge negative impact on the economy. Florida’s two 

largest industries are agriculture, including aqua culture and fisheries, and tourism. These are real, or even perceived negative impacts on these industries, which may caused by a direct harm, or 

the appearance of harm, to the marine environment, reduces tourism by discouraging people from visiting Florida’s beaches and attractions, and it sends economic shockwaves through the State. 

The panhandle of Florida is still recovering from the negative 

economic impacts resulting from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Florida’s coastline was spared from a more severe oil spill impact because weather conditions directed most of the oil away from the 

State. However, many people throughout the State, as well as potential out-of-State and international visitors, canceled trips to 

Florida’s vacation spots, fishing excursion, beach visits, because of 

the perception that our shoreline was not safe. News coverage of 

the spill contributed to canceled visits because it created the impression that spill effects were evident and widespread throughout 

the State. 

I would like to take this opportunity to remind the committee 

and the American public that Florida’s beaches are as clean as 

beautiful as ever. Tourism in the State has risen, and there are 

great bargains for many people to come and visit Florida. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. CARROLL. One of the reasons Florida has been able to adequately respond to the DWH spill is because our State and our 

businesses were protected by Federal law, such as the Oil Pollution 

12 

Act of 1990. OPA ’90 has been a key component in Florida’s recovery effort. 

Chairman and Members, Florida is greatly concerned about the 

uncertainty of the application of OPA ’90 to drilling in foreign waters. OPA ’90 identifies a responsible party that is held accountable 

financially for response, recovery, remediation, economic and natural resource damages. Without the protection afforded by the Federal law, all costs would be borne by Federal, State, and local governments. Furthermore, Florida is very concerned with the ability 

to have funding for third party claims in the event of a spill. 

Florida had more third party claims than any other State as a 

result of the Deepwater Horizon incident, despite the less than expected oil which reached its shores. Much of this effect was due to 

the large negative impact on the vital tourism industry throughout 

the State. There is uncertainty in a scenario with a foreign source 

of spilled oil on the funding and processing of third party claims 

and the associated timeline for such claims. 

A tremendous number of Florida’s citizens depend on a vibrant 

tourism industry to sustain their livelihood, and they would be devastated economically by a major foreign oil spill, even if the oil does 

not reach our shores. 

Florida strongly urges the Federal Government to develop and 

market a plan to address how our citizens can be compensated for 

damages created by a foreign oil spill. It is imperative that the 

Federal Government develop an international agreement that will 

give clear direction and guidelines for financial responsibility, recovery, remediation, economic and natural resource damages, in 

the event of an oil spill like those outlined in OPA ’90 or the legislation that Congressman Rivera has sponsored. 

Working with our Federal, local, and private sector partners, 

Florida believes that we have positioned ourselves to be as ready 

as possible in the event of a spill. In addition, we have been assured that the Coast Guard has worked with Repsol YPF, the company conducting initial exploration drilling off Cuba, to develop a 

good relationship and specific plans should a response ever be necessary. 

Unfortunately, response plans does not provide legal remedies to 

make injure parties hold or assume responsibility for restoring 

Florida’s natural environment that may be harmed. 

Florida is also heartened that multilateral discussions are ongoing with all of the Nation’s drilling in the North Caribbean Basin, 

or those potentially impacted by offshore oil exploration. These 

talks need to continue in order to ensure the Federal Government 

has the necessary authority and relationship to respond swiftly and 

effectively in an offshore environment to minimize the amount of 

oil spill which may reach Florida’s shoreline. 

There were many lessons learned from Florida’s experience with 

the DWH incident, and several organizations, including the U.S. 

Coast Guard, spent many hours developing a thorough analysis 

outlining those issues. 

As a followup to that analysis, the State of Florida, Department 

of Environment Protection, the Division of Emergency Management 

have worked diligently with the Coast Guard and local governVerDate Aug 31 2005 13:17 Mar 12, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 P:\HEARINGS\112\CG\1-30-1~1\72582.TXT JEAN
13 

ments to apply the lessons learned, and ensure that more specific 

protection plans are developed for coastline counties. 

In addition, on November 2011, the major Federal, State, local, 

and corporate parties who would be involved in a potential Cuban 

oil response, performed a table top exercise to ensure that everyone 

understood their roles and responsibility in the event of a spill, and 

to identify any gaps in that response planning to date. 

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman and Members, the State of Florida 

has been prepared for the eventuality of oil drilling off Cuba’s 

coast. We have been working with the U.S. Coast Guard and organizing our State agencies. Additionally, we have applied the lessons 

learned from the Deepwater Horizon incident, and we are determined to keep Florida’s beaches, coral reefs, waterways, fisheries 

clean and open. 

We are also aware of the type of government that we are dealing 

with in Cuba. The dubious track record only focuses Florida and 

our private and public sector partners on being even more prepared. 

On behalf of Governor Rick Scott and the people of Florida, I 

thank you and the committee in taking the initiative to address 

this critical issue and to look forward to working with you on this 

and many other issues that the Transportation Infrastructure Committee has before it that can help us continue Florida’s strong economy. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you, again, Lieutenant Governor Carroll. And 

I do know you have to scoot back to the State capital, and any time 

that you want to go, feel free to leave. But we, again, are just very 

grateful that you would take time, and also state the position of the 

State of Florida before the panel today. And we look forward to 

working with you. So, thank you again. 

We will turn now to our second witness. We are pleased to have 

Rear Admiral William Baumgartner, who is the commander of 

United States Coast Guard Seventh District. Admiral 

Baumgartner, thank you for being with us, and I will yield to you 

for your statement. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Good morning, Chairman Mica, subcommittee members, Members of the Florida delegation. As commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District, I am the pre-designated Federal on scene coordinator for any spill that threatens 

the U.S. exclusive economic zone within my district, even if that 

spill originates in foreign waters. As such, I will focus my testimony on tactical matters. 

A spill from offshore drilling in the Cuban, Bahamanian, or 

Mexican EEZ would present a significant threat to the United 

States. The international nature of the incident, along with swift 

currents, would generate additional challenges. I assure you that 

I will use the full extent of the authorities available to me to attack 

any oil spilled as aggressively as I can as close to the source as possible so that we can best protect the environmental, economic, and 

security interests of the United States. 

Prompt notification will be critical to any response effort. The expected drilling sites areas are already patrolled extensively by 

Coast Guard aircraft and cutters engaged in our drug and migrant 

14 

smuggling interdiction missions. We have increased the training of 

those crews to improve their ability to spot and identify potential 

oil pollution. We have also been actively engaged with the maritime industry, including the Cruise Line International Association 

and others to educate them on these dangers. These partners will 

provide an additional layer of awareness and vigilance for us. 

Based on the lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon, we revised 

our regional contingency plan and added an annex to address international sources of oil pollution. We completed revamped the area 

contingency plans, and we also developed a special offshore response plan. 

During our planning efforts, we conducted extensive engagement 

with Federal, State, and local agencies as well as industry, academia, and nongovernmental organizations. I have briefed Governor Scott and Lieutenant Governor Carroll on several occasions. 

Both the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the 

Department of Environmental Protection have been exceptional 

planning partners. I have also talked and worked with Visit Florida. 

Likewise, my sector commanders throughout Florida have engaged their area committees in revising area contingency plans. 

These committees include not only Federal, State, and local agencies, but also nongovernmental organizations with a wide range of 

maritime and environmental interests. 

We updated our geographic response plans which highlight environmentally sensitive areas and identify appropriate spill response 

tactics. In addition, we updated 80 tidal inlet protection strategies. 

These strategies are designed to prevent oil from entering the fragile ecosystems of inshore areas. We have included the Corporation 

for National and Community Service to help us coordinate volunteers who want to assist cleanup efforts. 

Based on the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon, we developed an offshore response plan with strategies, tactics, and command and control features for a spill in the offshore environment, 

including coordination with foreign response efforts. 

The offshore command will work directly for me and will complement command posts established by our sectors in nearshore 

areas. The offshore command will integrate Federal, State, industry, and nongovernmental organizations into a unified command for 

offshore response activities, including source control, dispersants, 

in-situ burning, and offshore mechanical recovery of oil. This plan 

has received attention from all levels of government and industry. 

More than 80 persons participated in our exercise last November. 

The Coast Guard has also been issued OFAC and BIS licenses 

that will allow us and U.S. response companies working under our 

direction to attack oil in the Cuban EEZ. 

In the event of a major spill, we will immediately begin deployment of critical resources to the areas with the greatest probability 

of shoreline impact. Aircraft and vessels will monitor the situation 

offshore and coordinate the need for any search and rescue support. 

We will employ every response tool, including surface dispersants, 

in-situ burning, and mechanical recovery, to attack the offshore oil 

quickly. 

15 

However, in any large spill, some portion of the oil will likely 

evade all offshore response efforts. Command posts in Key West, 

Miami, Jacksonville, and potentially other locations will focus on 

protecting the nearshore environment. Their top priority will be 

implementing tidal inlet protection strategies to prevent the oil 

from passing between barrier islands. 

In addition, they will activate plans to protect critical and unique 

resources, including power plan cooling intakes and marine mammal research facilities. They will also work hard to maintain the 

maritime transportation system in South Florida’s critical ports of 

Miami and Port Everglades. 

While I am confident that we have a sound plan, we will face 

challenges. The fast currents of the Florida State will challenge additional response activities. The use of boom will also be different 

than the public might expect. Boom will be used primarily for tidal 

inlet protection. We should not expect to see a cocoon of boom 

around the entire Florida coast. Booming near strong currents 

must be done with precision and restraint; otherwise, endangered 

sea grass and coral unique to South Florida ecosystems could be at 

greater risk from the anchoring systems required to hold the boom 

in place than from the oil itself. 

I thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I look forward to any questions you might have. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you, and we will hold questions until we have 

heard from all of the witnesses. Is Rear Admiral Cari Thomas 

going to also testify? OK. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes. 

Mr. MICA. Then let us recognize her, and she is the director of 

the response policy activities for the United States Coast Guard. 

Welcome, and you are recognized. 

Admiral THOMAS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Mr. 

Chairman, subcommittee members, and Members of the South 

Florida delegation. I am pleased to have this opportunity to discuss 

the Coast Guard’s plan for responding a spill that occur outside our 

exclusive economic zone, and our ongoing efforts to protect U.S. interests and U.S. waters by minimizing the risk of a discharge. 

As the director of Coast Guard Response Policy, my duties include overseeing incident management policies. Drawing upon my 

14 different assignments, including three separate duty stations in 

South Florida, I have been involved with a number of incidents or 

disasters, including hurricanes, ship groundings from fires, airplane crashes, mass migrations, as well as hundreds of search and 

rescue cases in the Straits of Florida and off Cuba and Haiti. Each 

of these events reinforce the principle of preparedness. Advanced 

and extensive planning exponentially improves the quality of response. The Coast Guard has been fully engaged to prepare and 

prevent a spill so it minimizes affecting the economy and the environment. 

Under the International Maritime Organization, the Coast Guard 

participated in a series of multilateral seminars focused on oil spill 

contingencies in the Caribbean. These engagements are fostering a 

common understanding of international obligations and standards 

for oil spill preparedness, prevention, and response. The seminars 

16 

build upon the framework of the Caribbean Island Oil Pollution Response and Cooperation Plan. 

Participants included technical level planning experts in drilling, 

plans, and equipment, emergency spill preparedness and response, 

and ocean modeling. Our engagements with the Northern Caribbean countries is well under way in improving collaboration essential to contingency planning. 

The Coast Guard also has a full visibility of Repsol’s response 

strategies, resources, and capabilities. Repsol invited Coast Guard 

observation and preparedness exercise in July 2011. They also provided access to key documents, including their oil spill response 

plan, and extensive review of that plan found it to be aligned with 

U.S. and international standards. 

Repsol volunteered to undergo a pre-arrival review of their drilling rig. The review compared this vessel with applicable international safety and security standards, as well as U.S. standards 

for units operating on the Outer Continental Shelf. The vessel was 

generally compliant with existing international and U.S. standards. 

The Coast Guard has asked the international consortium oil and 

gas producers to engage other companies planning to drill in the 

Caribbean offshore. We would like to include all prospective drilling companies in future multilateral efforts on regional oil spill 

prevention and response efforts. 

As I mentioned earlier, contingency planning, training, and exercises are fundamental to our readiness. Contingency planning occurs under the national contingency plan at several levels. At the 

national level, the Coast Guard serves as the vice chair of the National Response Team, which ensures national capabilities are 

available to support response efforts. Specific to readiness for Caribbean drilling, we have leveraged the Federal Interagency to ensure a united approach to readiness. The Coast Guard has obtained 

license from OFAC and BIS, which allow us to direct U.S. response 

operations in the Cuban EEZ in the event of a spill. 

As you heard Admiral Baumgartner state, the district participates through the regional response teams on issues such as 

dispersants and in-situ burning on preauthorizations. Response 

Team 4, which is co-chaired by District 7, has updated the regional 

contingency plan, and, as he said, includes an annex on international offshore oil spills. 

The Coast Guard is confident that our partnerships at the national, regional, and local levels strengthen our planning process 

and our readiness for oil spill response. 

Any disaster response requires the whole of community and a 

unity of effort across all levels of government, industry, and the 

private sector. In the event that a spill does occur within the 

Cuban EEZ, the Coast Guard will mount an immediate response in 

partnership with other Federal, State, tribal, and local agencies. 

We will focus on combatting the spill as far offshore as possible and 

as close to the source as possible using all viable response tactics. 

As a Florida resident for over 20 years and a property owner in 

Miami-Dade County, I understand a citizen’s concern for the economy and the environment. The Coast Guard initiated aggressive 

preparedness measures to ensure readiness to respond to what 

would be a low probability, but high consequence event. 

17 

Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions you 

may have. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you, and, again, we will withhold questions. 

We will now recognize Debbie Payton. She is the chief of the 

Emergency Response Division at the NOAA office of Response and 

Restoration. Welcome. You are recognized. 

Ms. PAYTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee and Members of the Florida delegation for the opportunity to speak with you today. 

Mr. MICA. I do not think we can hear her. 

Ms. PAYTON. I do not think it is on. 

Mr. MICA. Pull it up as close as you can. 

Ms. PAYTON. OK. Can you hear now? Yeah, I do not think this 

one—now it is on. 

Mr. MICA. There you go. 

Ms. PAYTON. OK. Now it is on. Thank you. OK. 

My name is Debbie Payton, the chief of the Emergency Response 

Division for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration. 

I am going to switch mics. OK. Let us try this again. OK. 

With over 30 years of experience in oil spill response, NOAA 

clearly understands spills can harm people and the environment 

and can cause substantial disruption to marine transportation and 

tourism, with potential widespread economic impacts. 

NOAA has three critical roles in spill response. That first role is 

during emergency response, NOAA serves as the conduit for bringing science information into a response so that decisions that the 

Federal on-scene coordinator and unified command are making are 

based on the best available scientific information. We do that 

through regionally distributed Scientific Support Coordinators. 

The second role is as a natural resource trustee, NOAA conducts, 

with co-trustees, natural resource damage assessments to evaluate 

the impact and lost resources during a spill event. 

And then, finally, NOAA represents the Department of Commerce in spill response decisionmaking and preparedness activities 

through the National Response Team. 

In addition to those roles that NOAA plays directly for spill response, NOAA provides weather forecasting, satellite services, 

navigational services, fisheries and sanctuaries management, ecosystem mapping and analysis, and research labs, one of which is 

located right here in Miami-Dade, the Atlantic Oceanographic and 

Meteorological Lab, that do research into all of these things so they 

can be brought into the service part. 

As mentioned by previous speakers, the Coast Guard has been 

working very aggressively to update the area contingency plans, 

and NOAA has been involved in that effort in a number of ways. 

The one which I am going to speak with the committee about today 

is focused particularly on the potential threat from a modeling and 

oceanographic standpoint to the coast of Florida, and actually farther up the eastern seaboard as well. 

This modeling study follows on the earlier efforts conducted by 

then MMS, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and some 

studies that the U.S. Coast Guard was able to get access to 

18 

through Repsol for their oil spill response planning modeling efforts. 

In a real spill, the scenario is known. You know where the oil 

is being released from nominally, how much oil and what type of 

oil. And you know the environmental conditions, what the currents 

are, what the winds are, any storms coming up or anything else. 

In planning like this, you do not have the benefit of knowing that, 

so you have to count on climatological/historical information. And 

that is what the studies that I am going to briefly touch on today 

will talk about. 

Surface oil movements generally are affected by winds and currents and the characteristics of the oil itself. And, Chairman, as 

you mentioned, as you identified in your opening speech, the Florida area is very unique in that you have a very, very persistent 

current here in the Gulf Stream system. Between the loop current 

and the Florida current and the Gulf Stream current, that is a very 

strong system that will dominate the movement of the oil. 

The significance of these strong currents is they can move oil 

very quickly, potentially up to 70 or 80 nautical miles in a 24-hour 

period, much faster than the hundreds of spills that we respond to 

each year. 

The modeling results can be significantly different depending on 

where you look at for an initial release site. And, with the Coast 

Guard, we have identified a number of sites. If you look at that second map all the way to the west, all the way to the east. The results that I will speak really briefly about are only from the first 

potential drilling site, Repsol’s site, about 16 miles north of the 

Cuban coast. If people are interested, in the Q&A I would be happy 

to address results from other sites as well. 

We made assumptions for the modeling. We do not know what 

kind of oil it will be, how much could potentially be released. So, 

we assumed a 75,000 barrel per day release for 90 days from that 

site of a medium crude oil. The model has been set up with fairly 

large squares, 100 nautical mile squares. And what you do, since 

you are looking at historical data, is count how many scenarios impact a square. You run hundreds of scenarios with tens of thousands of particles and count how many scenarios impact each area. 

What we find from that is, in general, from that first site and 

looking at surface oil only, while a good portion of the oil remains 

offshore, there are a number of scenarios, at least 40 percent, and 

upwards of that in some portions of Florida coast, that could have 

some oil from a release at that site impact Florida coastlines. 

The fastest is in one of the scenarios, oil reached the east coast 

of Florida in 5 days, but in 95 percent of the scenarios the first oil 

reaches the east coast in 10 to 20 days. 

The Florida Keys show lower impact probabilities, on the order 

of 20 to 30 percent. And the reason for that is, from that site, you 

have to cross a very strong current to get to the Florida Keys. As 

a matter of fact, most of the impact showing the Florida Keys are 

under scenarios where the oil goes to the west first, then goes 

north, gets into the loop current, and comes to the Florida Keys. 

So, actually, although one scenario had an impact in 3 days in the 

Keys, 95 percent were 20 to 30 days to impact the Keys. So, actuVerDate Aug 31 2005 13:17 Mar 12, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 P:\HEARINGS\112\CG\1-30-1~1\72582.TXT JEAN
19 

ally longer because you’ve got to get across that very strong current. 

Probabilities decrease northward from the Florida border, but increase again as you get near Cape Hatteras where the Gulf Stream 

comes very close to the coastline. 

North of Chesapeake Bay, none of the modeled scenarios showed 

impact above a level of concern. And in doing these kinds of analyses, you have to decide what your level of concern is; the level 

that we chose was 500 barrels per grid cell, so that is 500 barrels 

over 100 square nautical miles. That is equivalent to about 25 percent of that 100 nautical miles square being covered with a sheen, 

or the equivalent of what we are more likely to see impacts in Florida of 124 tarballs per football field. 

Inside the Gulf of Mexico, from that first site, the risks are relatively low, more on the order of 10 percent. 

NOAA is committed to continuing to work with the spill response 

community and the Coast Guard to provide the best possible 

science to support a robust and effective planning process to ensure 

we are as prepared as possible should a spill occur in this offshore 

region. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today, and I 

look forward to questions. 

Mr. MICA. Well, thank you, and we will hear now from Lars 

Herbst, and he is the regional director of the Gulf of Mexico region 

for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, U.S. Department of Interior. Welcome, and you are recognized. 

Mr. HERBST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the 

committee. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in today’s hearing. I am Lars Herbst, regional director of the 

Gulf of Mexico region for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental 

Enforcement. 

BSEE is the agency responsible for enforcing safety and environmental standards regarding oil and gas exploration development 

and production activities on the United States Outer Continental 

Shelf. 

Today I would like to share with you information on the actions 

taken to ensure, within our ability to do so, that oil and gas operations in neighboring waters outside the United States jurisdiction 

are undertaken in a safe environmentally responsible manner consistent with international and industry standards. 

As you know, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill 

prompted the most aggressive and comprehensive reforms to offshore oil and gas regulation and oversight in U.S. history. Our new 

standards and other reforms are designed to promote safety and 

protection of ocean environments and coastlines and the exploration, development, and production of U.S. offshore mineral resources. 

The Department of Interior and BSEE have taken an active approach to identify and become involved in international initiatives 

that promote integration of safety and environmental concerns in 

offshore development decisionmaking. This approach includes sharing lessons learned and best practices for safety and environmental 

standards, participating in technical and information exchanges 

with our international regulatory counterparts, and providing techVerDate Aug 31 2005 13:17 Mar 12, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00033 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 P:\HEARINGS\112\CG\1-30-1~1\72582.TXT JEAN
20 

nical advice to the U.S. Department of State, other relevant U.S. 

agencies, and the next generation of oil and gas producing countries. 

This international engagement is in addition to our continued coordination with key agencies across the Federal Government, including the Department of State, U.S. Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

We also engage in ongoing communications with offshore industry, and oil response, and blowout containment companies. In particular, the Department of Interior and BSEE are working closely 

with other Federal agencies to address the potential threat of an 

oil spill in neighboring parts of the Gulf of Mexico that could affect 

U.S. waters, shorelines, and resources. 

Several countries on or near the Gulf of Mexico are expected to 

proceed with offshore drilling in their exclusive economic zones, or 

EEZ, in the near future. As you are aware, the Spanish oil and gas 

company, Repsol will soon begin to drill its offshore wells in Cuba’s 

EEZ using a newly constructed mobile offshore drilling unit, or 

MODU, the Scarabeo 9. We also expect additional offshore drilling 

activity in the EEZs of Bahamas and Jamaica, and continuing offshore activity in Mexico’s EEZ. 

BSEE is actively engaged in U.S. Government efforts to promote 

drilling safety measures to prevent oil spills. These activities including cooperating with our regulatory agency counterparts in the 

region, including Mexico, through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms to develop common safety and response standards, and communicating with Repsol to encourage its compliance with U.S. drilling safety and related environmental standards. 

While BSEE does not have oversight authority over Repsol’s activities in the Cuba EEZ, beginning in February of 2011, at 

Repsol’s request, we entered into discussions concerning Repsol’s 

potential activity offshore Cuba and its plans related to drill and 

well control. 

We have made clear in our numerous communications with 

Repsol that we expect Repsol to adhere to industry and international environmental, health, and safety standards, and to have 

adequate prevention, mitigation, and remediation systems in place 

in the event of an incident. Subsequently, Repsol officials have 

stated publicly that in carrying out its exploratory drilling plans in 

Cuban waters, it will voluntarily adhere to U.S. regulations and 

the highest industry standards. 

Repsol offered U.S. agencies an opportunity to board the 

Scarabeo 9. BSEE and the U.S. Coast Guard accepted. On January 

9, 2012, experts from BSEE conducted a review of the Scarabeo 9 

while the rig was off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. 

While aboard the Scarabeo 9, BSEE officials examined the rig’s 

vessel construction, drilling equipment, and safety systems, including the blowout preventer. Based on the information shared by 

Repsol, BSEE was able to use its well containment screening tool 

to conclude that the well could be safely capped using existing 

methods. 

The review was designed to familiarize ourselves with the rig 

and provide guidance to Repsol on how to ensure that its safety 

21 

measures meet U.S. standards. The review was consistent with 

U.S. regulatory efforts to minimize the potential for a major oil 

spill that would hurt U.S. economic and environmental interests. 

The review evaluated the vessel for consistency with both applicable international safety standards and U.S. standards for drilling 

units operating in the Outer Continental Shelf of the United 

States. The review’s work scope involved a comprehensive pressure 

and function testing of the BOP, focused discussions with rig personnel, and a walk through of the rig that included key visual observations and a physical testing of devices. 

As I noted earlier, BSEE does not exercise oversight authority 

over the Scarabeo 9 or its intended operations in the Cuban EEZ. 

Accordingly, our review does not confer any form of certification or 

endorsement under U.S. or international law. While our review of 

the rig was not as exhaustive as our review of a rig operated in 

the U.S. OCS would be, BSEE officials found the vessel and the 

drilling safety equipment, including the BOP, to be generally consistent with existing international and U.S. standards by which 

Repsol has pledged to abide. 

We will remain in communication with Repsol as it moves forward with its activities to provide any further guidance it may 

seek. 

In anticipation of an increase in drilling activities in the Caribbean Basin and the Gulf of Mexico, the United States is participating in multilateral discussions with the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Mexico on a broad range of issues, including drilling 

safety related to prevention of an accident and oil spill preparedness in response, such as subsidy containment were a spill or subsidy blowout to occur. 

A series of multilateral meetings are being conducted under the 

auspices of the International Maritime Organization. The most recent meeting was hosted by the Bahamas in early December. The 

next meeting is scheduled to begin tomorrow in Curacao. 

I was one of BSEE’s representatives at the most recent multilateral discussion. All of the country’s delegates were highly engaged 

in constructive discussions regarding preventive regulatory frameworks, safety standards for mobile offshore drilling units, and best 

practices in oil spill prevention and containment. Our goal is to increase regional cooperation and joint planning for oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response measures for offshore units with 

a goal of minimizing pollution of marine and coastal environments. 

I expect that this week’s seminar will continue these positive 

interactions and provide BSEE personnel the opportunity to share 

further lessons and recommendations. 

In addition, BSEE and its predecessor agencies have been collaborating with officials from all levels of the Mexican Government 

since the late 1990s on issues related to safe and responsible development of oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Mexico. This cooperation has increased substantially in the aftermath of the Deepwater 

Horizon and after the creation of the National Hydrocarbons Commission, or CNH, the Mexican agency responsible for regulating 

offshore drilling activity. 

BSEE and CNH are working towards a set of common safety environmental standards through a series of bilateral technical workVerDate Aug 31 2005 13:17 Mar 12, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00035 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 P:\HEARINGS\112\CG\1-30-1~1\72582.TXT JEAN
22 

shops. Following a workshop held this summer at BSEE’s Gulf of 

Mexico regional office, the U.S. and Mexico developed an action 

plan to define subject areas for the creation of common standards 

would be appropriate. 

In summary, the Department of Interior and BSEE, through ongoing bilateral and multilateral engagement with our foreign counterparts in areas of shared interest and concern, is an essential 

component for the protection of U.S. environment and economic interests, and an effort that can be mutually beneficial. 

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions. 

Mr. MICA. And we will now recognize Dr. John Proni, and he is 

the executive director of the Florida International University Applied Research Center. Welcome, sir, and you are recognized. 

Mr. PRONI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to talk here today. 

I applaud the response plan that has mentioned by Admiral 

Baumgartner and the work that the Coast Guard has done. As you 

will see in a few minutes, I consider that we should have a broader 

plan, a proactive plan, which should go into effect now, which will 

enhance the scientific understanding that is required to deal with 

a prospective oil spill, and to improve our ability to respond to such 

spill. 

The direct answer to the question as to whether oil, either in episodic event releases or in chronic releases which can occur in the 

development of an oil field reaching U.S. coastal waters, is yes. 

There is a finite probability that this will occur. 

To compare and to enhance our discussion, we could make a comparison quickly with the Deepwater Horizon versus what might 

arise in the Cuban exclusive economic zone. If we look at the middle chart of the three charts shown here, you see the location of 

multiple sites that are programmed for either present or future development. This is a multiyear operation, so we may expect 

multiyear releases and impacts arising, not just from oil spill, but 

from chronic releases due to such things as drilling fluid releases, 

reduced water releases, and a host of other type releases. This is 

a not a short-time, one-event circumstance. 

If you look at those sites and then you look at the next chart, 

and you see there the oil spill indicated, that is the site of the 

Deepwater Horizon spill. If you look below where you see South 

Florida, and the Cuba, and the Yucatan Channel, and you see that 

line that enters in the form of a loop and then proceeds to the east 

of the Florida coast, that is one general model of the loop current 

Gulf Stream system. 

The point out of that chart is if you look at the distance from the 

Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the site of the Cuban dredging oil 

drilling, and compare it to the proximal location of that current to 

the Cuban coast, it is immediately apparent that the likelihood and 

possibilities of entrainment of the oil, either an event type or 

chronic releases, can occur very quickly. That is the first significant 

difference between the Deepwater Horizon and the Cuban possibility. 

The second difference lies in the way the oil may get into the 

stream. For the sites shown in the Cuban area, there will be a possibility of the oil being released south of the stream, under the 

23 

stream, and north of the stream, depending on the variations in 

the motion of the stream and the sites. 

Entrainment under the stream was not a phenomenon seen to 

any significant degree in the Deepwater Horizon spill, but it is likely to be a phenomenon seen in the Cuban exclusive economic zone 

drilling. 

The third significant feature is we lack the ability to carry out 

comprehensive drilling fluid evaluation. We lack the ability to fully 

characterize the oil in the near to Cuban sites. And we lack the 

ability to apply near site remediation possibilities, including advanced technologies that were not significantly utilized in the Deepwater Horizon spill. 

For example, we have heard discussions of reparations for the 

impacts of Cuban oil on the U.S. coast. To put strength under the 

claim of a reparation, you have to be able to show that the oil that 

is in your coast did, in fact, originate from the Cuban site. To do 

that, you have to characterize the Cuban oil, and you have to characterize not only at the site, but you have to characterize it at different distances from where it originates. 

In any case, I believe we should put into a place a proactive plan 

that utilizes the outstanding local expertise available and 

multiyears of experience that a group of universities and the regional Federal labs have. And that situation should be implemented now so that there is not a delay in the gathering of knowledge, and not a delay certainly in administrative and financial 

matters regarding such an event. 

Finally, I will just close with a comment about the probability of 

Deepwater. If you look at the third chart, you will see that chart 

is effectively a sonogram of oil from the IXTOC oil well release in 

1979. It is a picture made using sound of oil plumes in the body 

of water that are moving away from the well site. That first picture 

is made at about half a nautical mile away from the well site; the 

second picture is made about 13 nautical miles. 

Now, I would say that the possibility exists that for deep drilling, 

that multiple such plumes occur, and we have to be prepared to 

know they exist and to be able to respond to that existence. 

So, again, I thank the committee, and, again, I stress that we 

have a consortium of universities and Federal laboratories. The 

local regional NOAA labs, AOML, NHC, and the Southeast Fishery 

Centers, and NOVA University, the University of Miami, and FIU, 

are people with the expertise and modeling, the high resolution 

modeling, that is going to be required to really address this problem. 

So, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you so 

much for your attention. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you for your testimony, and I want to thank 

all of the witnesses for their participation today. We will go immediately now to questions, and I will start. And then we will recognize other Members. 

Admiral Baumgartner, first of all, there is one rig out there, and 

that rig is in place. Are they drilling? Do we know if they are drilling now? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. My information is that it is close to 

where the drill is, but is not necessarily at the drill site. 

24 

Mr. MICA. See, I was told that it is at the site and the drilling 

would start immediately. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. We had expected that—— 

Mr. MICA. Do we know? We do not know? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. We know where it is at right now. We 

have ways of knowing those things. 

Mr. MICA. Yes, but, I mean, and that should be something the 

United States knows is is that in place, and have they begun drilling. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. My information from this morning is it 

is not quite at the location, and the oil rig is not—— 

Mr. MICA. OK, but it should be fairly imminent? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes. 

Mr. MICA. Then I was told because of the cost of these rigs, this 

is a half-a-billion-dollar rig or whatever it is, and it is millions of 

dollars a day, that they will start almost immediately? Is that your 

information? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes, sir. I think probably three-quarters 

probably in that neighborhood to buy it, and then a half a million 

dollars a day in leasing costs. 

Mr. MICA. So, they will start—— 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. So, they will start as soon as they can. 

Mr. MICA. So, probably within days, they will be actually drilling. 

And is it 56 miles that first site off the Florida Keys, do we know? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Sir, first—— 

Mr. MICA. Because the site was already pre-identified. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Right. The pre-identified site is about 16 

miles north of the Cuban coast, and it is about 80 miles from Key 

West. 

Mr. MICA. Eighty miles from the Keys. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. About 80 miles, yes, sir. But it is still 

about the same distance from the Keys. 

Mr. MICA. OK. All right. So, the other thing, too, is, these are 

deep water, and this is a deep water well, and it is expected to be 

deeper than the Deepwater Horizon? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes, sir. We expect this to be about 

5,870 feet of water depth for this first drill site. 

Mr. MICA. And I understand the same thing that we are looking 

at with the Bahamas? That is also deep water? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. There are some deep water sites there. 

There are also some shallower water sites there. 

Mr. MICA. How far off are the Bahamanians from having a rig 

off their shores, do we know? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. The latest estimates that we have is 

that at best case, the middle of next year. 

Mr. MICA. OK. The other thing that came to mind, I mean, we 

try to make certain that you have the resources necessary. We are 

in a horrible budget deficit situation here. We are spending over $1 

trillion more than we are taking in a year. Your agency has been 

hard hit. Is this stretching your resources? Have you been working 

with the administration on your budget for this—well, it will be announced by the President, I guess, by April. Have you asked for 

more money to be able to respond now that the area sort of danger 

has expanded? 

25 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Well, sir, the principle response costs 

come out of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, so it does not come 

out of the appropriated budget for my particular—— 

Mr. MICA. And that is another nice thing I am finding out, too, 

from staff that we have no way to replenish that. And Mr. Rivera’s 

bill tries to claim money from those who do damage to us, but they 

have really no obligation to pay, at least under existing law. So, 

that is going to take a big hit, that fund. And it would not be replenished. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Well, sir, the legal obligations and the 

status of responsible parties and responsible entities are something 

that the Justice Department has been working very hard on, and 

there are not necessarily set answers there. But certainly there are 

possibilities to assert and make sure that the polluting parties are 

held responsible. 

Mr. MICA. Well, again, I am not sure how you do that. And, 

again, I think they are outside the reach of the United States and 

Department of Justice. We have not had exactly the greatest working relationship with the Cubans at last check. 

OK. Now, you also testified that you reviewed the spill containment plan, is that true, that Repsol has? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. My staff has reviewed and had been able 

to look at it. 

Mr. MICA. Now, wait a second. That is not something that you 

are normally charged with. Is that not Department of Interior? If 

we were in a situation, the Department of Interior and you have 

a licensing and all. Your enforcement, but we divided that up. Does 

not the Department of Interior review any of those permits or 

plans? In fact, that was one of the problems that we had the spill 

in the Gulf is the Department of Interior carte blanche and almost 

no time approved an oil response plan. It just so happened that 

they took one, I guess, that was from Alaska because it included 

walrus, polar bears, and some other things we found out after the 

fact. 

Did you participate with the Coast Guard or anyone from Interior in looking at this plan? 

Mr. HERBST. Mr. Chairman, we did have folks from our headquarters office that are involved with regional oil spill response 

planning on this. But it was not reviewed at the same level that 

we would have if it was—— 

Mr. MICA. In fact, we have some control, but we have no control. 

OK. So, are you taking their word for it then? Again, I do not think 

the Coast Guard normally reviews oil spill plans and checks off on 

them, do you? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Well, there are two different parts of the 

plans. There is the drill plan, which the Coast Guard really has no 

expertise in. 

Mr. MICA. That is what I am talking about. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Then there is the contingency response 

plan. 

Mr. MICA. OK. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. And the contingency response plan as to 

how they would address oil that has been spilled is something 

26 

that—my staff has reviewed Repsol’s plan and been able to look at 

that. 

Mr. MICA. Well, again, I am very concerned. I know the limited 

resources we have, the Coast Guard has, and to be doing cleanup 

work off of Cuba or for Cuba, just does not sit well with me. But, 

again, I think we are going to face some challenges. 

Dr. Proni said that we will probably get chronic releases. Is that 

right, chronic releases you said? 

Mr. PRONI. That is correct. 

Mr. MICA. And then, the other thing that was startling was, Ms. 

Payton, you said that, wow. How far does this stuff go in 24 hours? 

Ms. PAYTON. Given the strength of the current system, the loop 

current to Florida’s current in the Gulf—— 

Mr. MICA. You said 70 or 80 miles in 24 hours? 

Ms. PAYTON. Yes, if it was in the core of the current it could 

move that fast. 

Mr. MICA. I mean, God bless the Coast Guard to respond and by 

the time we could find somebody who was not paddling down the 

Colorado River or wherever he was to even look at what was going 

on. 

Well, again, you have to come in. And you said that containment 

cannot be done in the same manner. I think everybody agrees to 

this because of this rapid moving current. Is that correct, Admiral? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. There are a couple of things that the 

current does affect in our ability to respond to a spill, and I mentioned some things in my testimony. I will kind of try to separate 

them a little bit. 

One is when you are out near the source, if the oil is moving in 

a swift current there, it does make things like in-situ burning—corralling the oil and then lighting it on fire and burning it—more difficult because everything is moving. 

Mr. MICA. It would look nice at night, though, off the beach. 

[Laughter.] 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes, sir. It makes mechanical skimming 

or skimming more difficult because the oil will move faster. It will 

disperse more quickly, so that is less effective. And it does the 

make the use of dispersants actually more effective because there 

is more mixing, and you need mixing for—— 

Mr. MICA. We do not want to get into dispersants. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. No. 

Mr. MICA. Has EPA figured out what we can use? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Sir, the Regional Response Plan already 

addresses dispersants and what dispersants would be pre-approved 

for initial use. But as we would go into the spill—— 

Mr. MICA. Do we have great stores of that that is pre-approved 

that EPA has approved? Do we have great stores? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. We have tens of thousands of gallons of 

that. If we had a potential worse case spill of Deepwater Horizon 

proportions, the manufacturer can begin manufacturing large 

quantities of more skilled—— 

Mr. MICA. If they do not get stopped by EPA. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Well, the primary dispersant is on the 

EPA approved list, so they can begin manufacturing more dispersant within 24 hours. 

27 

Mr. MICA. Well, thank you. I am just a little bit shocked by the 

administration, what is it, 2 weeks ago, the President shot down 

and the administration, Keystone which they looked at for 31⁄2

years. It looks like we are doing everything we can to accommodate 

the Cuban regime, and that we are going to get stuck with both 

the damage and also the cleanup costs. 

Let me yield to Mr. Hultgren? 

Mr. HULTGREN. Thank you, Chairman. I have several questions 

to throw out, and so I wonder, if possible, if we could keep answers 

brief; it would be great. 

But I am going to start with Dr. Proni. I just have a question. 

If there was an oil spill from the North Cuba Basin, what would 

be the impact on U.S. waters and coastline? And I wonder specifically where you think oiling would likely occur on the U.S. coast, 

which areas would be hit first, and which areas would be most severely impacted? 

Mr. PRONI. Well, sir, I have not yet made a detailed study of the 

transport of the oil, and it has been made with a high resolution 

model, which is what is needed here. 

But I do know from many years of study of pollution releases in 

the South Florida area that there are mechanisms for oil that 

might be entrained, say, within the first 100 meters of the ocean 

to come onto our coral reefs as deep cold water events, which may 

be the meandering of the Gulf Stream, or may be eddy systems. 

But those systems occur all the way along the Florida coast. So, 

if you say where are the likely areas that it might come to shore 

in Florida, much of the coast is a likely area. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Mr. Herbst, on January 9, 2012, you had mentioned the review systems of the Repsol mobile offshore drilling 

unit. I wondered would you have certified Repsol’s mobile offshore 

drilling unit for operations in U.S. waters? 

Mr. HERBST. Our review is what we call a pre-spud review that 

we do. It is an informal review. It finds any issues that may exist 

on the rig. We did find some of those. 

Normally what we would do in the U.S., we would do a followup 

full inspection before the rig starts working. So, pretty much the 

first review, the pre-spud review, is a cursory review. It did find 

some issues. Repsol has indicated to us that they will resolve those 

issues before drilling. 

Mr. HULTGREN. What were the most significant issues you saw? 

Mr. HERBST. There were some issues associated with a safe welding area on the rig. Also at the time that we did the review, wiring 

was not completed on several of the safety system, the gas detection systems, on the rig. Those are things that if it was going to 

enter the U.S. OCS, we would have done a followup to ensure that 

those were in place and tested. 

Mr. HULTGREN. But with the review that was done, if there was 

not enough information to be able to give approval for that type of 

rig, to get approval or certification in U.S. waters, is that correct? 

Mr. HERBST. Right. The level of review that we did offshore in 

Trinidad and Tobago were not thorough enough to actually allow 

to drill in the U.S. 

Mr. HULTGREN. OK. Rear Admiral Thomas, just a quick question 

for you. We have talked a little bit about the Clean Water Act and 

28 

also the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. I just wondered if you could discuss briefly what actions, if any, are at our disposal to ensure 

international polluters comply with OPA or CWA, who might otherwise resist. Are there penalties encouraging them to cooperate with 

those? 

Admiral THOMAS. One of the very important parts of the Oil Spill 

Liability Trust Fund is this concept that a polluter pays. And so, 

for those scenarios in which an identified ship can be held accountable for that, such as in Deepwater Horizon, we saw BP pay upwards of almost $22 billion as of earlier this month is what they 

have paid in that scenario. 

Now, if there is not a responsible party, the reason that the Oil 

Spill Liability Trust Fund was created was to provide for the U.S. 

claimants, if you did not know who spilled, could submit a claim 

to the United States and be made whole. 

And so, our finding is that irrespective of whether or not Repsol 

can be held accountable in this scenario, that the Oil Spill Liability 

Trust Fund could be used for both removal costs as well as claim 

costs. And, of course, we would have to work immediately with the 

committee to provide legislative relief for those caps that exist on 

the $50 million annually as the chairman indicated before. And it 

is up a $1 billion per incident cap. And any kind of catastrophic 

event would cause us to come to the committee right away for relief 

on those. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Real quickly, my time is running out. But, Rear 

Admiral Baumgartner, I wonder if you could just address through 

what means the Coast Guard would be made aware of an incident 

on Repsol’s mobile offshore drilling unit, and how much time would 

you expect to last between an incident and notification? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. I would say if they have a major catastrophic release well blowout, we will know very, very quickly. We 

fly and we patrol in those waters, so we might actually see the incident as it developed. 

We also know that under international treaties and so forth, the 

Cuban Government has a duty to notify us promptly of any release 

that might affect our waters. And we would expect that we would 

get a fairly quick notification. So, I am not expecting that there 

would be much of a delay. However, since we patrol that area ourselves and we have other means to watch, we are going to do everything we can. 

So, I do not expect there will be a huge delay. 

Mr. HULTGREN. So, it would have to be through our patrolling, 

or the Cuban Government notifying us. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. We might also get it directly from 

Repsol, although they do not have a legal requirement to notify us 

necessarily. But I would expect that we might get it from all of 

those sources pretty promptly if there was a significant spill. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Is there any way to require them, for Repsol to 

notify us? I mean, they would be the ones to know immediately if 

something happened, I would think. Is there any way for them to 

be required to notify us? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. There are some possibilities, but in general, it is drilling in the Cuban EEZ. It is those rules that apply 

29 

and the Cuban Government’s rules that apply to them while they 

are drilling there. 

Mr. HULTGREN. I have gone over my time. I yield back to the 

chairman. 

Mr. MICA. Mr. Long? Mr. Long, you are recognized. 

Mr. LONG. Thank you. It is interesting to find out that Cuba is 

interested in international treaties provided by them. 

[Laughter.] 

Mr. LONG. And I do want to make a note for the record how awestruck I am that we are sitting here having this discussion about 

apparently an administration aiding and abetting the Castro brothers in this endeavor. 

At the same time, we have a Keystone XL pipeline. Now, we do 

not have a chart here today, but if you had a chart of the United 

States of America that showed the pipelines in the United States, 

I think if you take a chart of the land the Government owns, they 

own more than anybody else, and more than half of the U.S., I 

think, is owned by the United States Government. Well, the chart 

of the pipelines look very similar. 

There are pipelines everywhere, and we are talking about stateof-the-art, XL pipelines, Keystone XL pipelines, from Canada to deliver to deliver the oil down to Houston. And we are sitting here 

today having this discussion about the chances of an environmental 

disaster in that situation are miniscule about what we are talking 

about here today. 

And, to me, that is just absolutely appalling that that project 

cannot move forward at zero cost to the Government, and we are 

talking about what I think Congressman Rivera says is a $1 billion 

cap on payments right now. And we just heard testimony that BP 

paid $22 billion on their fiasco here at the Deepwater Horizon. So, 

it is just a little mind boggling. 

Rear Admiral Baumgartner, on the lease payments, I think you 

said, how much a day is it, a half a million dollars a day? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. It is somewhere in that neighborhood, 

yes. 

Mr. LONG. Now, is that the lease payment made to the guy that 

owns the rig? Is that what that is? Does that go to the Castro 

brothers or what? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. No, no, no. The Scarabeo 9 is owned by 

an Italian company. 

Mr. LONG. That is what their lease would be. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. That is right, and Repsol would pay a 

lease fee to that owner of the. 

Mr. LONG. Right. That is what—— 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes. 

Mr. LONG. I wanted to make sure on that. 

What the protocol and the overreaching authority I heard back 

at the time that the Deepwater Horizon was OK for safety procedures from some office on some island somewhere. Is that the same 

protocol that is followed here as far as safety and concerns? Is 

there a big difference in Deepwater Horizon and the wells that are 

going to be drilled down here? Has anything changed in that last 

case? 

30 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. I am not sure that I follow the question. 

It might be better off for Mr. Herbst? 

Mr. HERBST. Mr. Congressman, I am not sure if I understand the 

question. If the question is just about—— 

Mr. LONG. The protocol and the safety concerns about the Deepwater Horizon, when we found out where that was licensed out of 

what was some island somewhere, the licensing authority. 

Mr. HERBST. Oh, OK. 

Mr. LONG. Is this the same protocol here is my question. 

Mr. HERBST. I think it would be a Coast Guard flag state maybe 

issue. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. That is right. The Scarabeo 9 is actually 

registered in and flies a Bahamanian flag. So, I think what you are 

talking about, in Deepwater Horizon, the Deepwater Horizon itself 

was the Republic of the Marshall Islands was the actual flag state. 

So, it is not a U.S. flagged drilling rig obviously. It is flagged in 

the Bahamas. 

Mr. LONG. OK. Another question for you, Rear Admiral 

Baumgartner. Would a response to a spill in Bahamanian waters 

be different, and, if so, how than in Cuban waters? Are you able 

to respond differently there? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Well, for both of them, the primary response is obviously the Cuban Government or the Bahamanian 

Government. So, on the other hand, we obviously have better and 

open relationships with the Bahamanian Government. We work 

very closely on many things, smuggling, tourism, all kinds of 

things. So, we work every day with the Bahamanians. So, there 

would be an obviously closer relationship with them. 

Mr. LONG. On sort of that same theme, while things have 

changed over time, the U.S. has maintained a full economic embargo against our friends in Cuba since 1962. And how will the current embargo most directly affect U.S. response operations if a spill 

were to occur in the North Cuban Basin? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Well, right now, I have authority to respond to oil that threatens the U.S. EEZ, so that is independent 

of the embargo. 

Licenses have also been issued to spill responders so that the 

U.S. companies can go into the Cuban EEZ to respond to oil that 

will eventually be coming to the United States. I mentioned in my 

testimony, and Admiral Thomas did as well, the Coast Guard has 

a license that allows us to take action in the Cuban EEZ as necessary, and U.S. companies that are acting under our direction in 

the Cuban EEZ can also enter into the Cuban EEZ and take action 

and to attack oil before it comes into U.S. waters and attacks our 

shores. So, those licenses are in place. 

Mr. LONG. OK, thank you. I have several more questions, but my 

time has expired. I cannot yield back because I do not have any 

time, but if I could I would. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you. Mr. Gibbs, you are recognized. 

Mr. GIBBS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

It seems like there are two major concerns. The drilling is probably going to occur, and the concern about containing it if there is 

a spill, and also liability of who is going to pay for any cleanup. 

31 

And fortunately in the Deepwater Horizon, taxpayers did not really 

get stuck with the bill because BP had the resources to do that. 

Now, when it comes to reacting to a problem, and I heard the 

Coast Guard mention about the flights over, and you have got ways 

to obviously with all the other stuff you are doing, drug interdiction 

and all that. I am really concerned. You read about and hear about 

this administration, the massive cuts coming from the Defense, and 

hear Defense, the Navy in general and particular, the number of 

ships they are going to have comparable to what they had a few 

years ago. It is half. 

The question is for the Coast Guard, are you factoring in, are you 

seeing cuts in the number of assets you will actually have in place? 

And do you rely, because we are talking about 24 hours. 

It looks like, from what I can see from the determination of testimony, that the Florida Keys might be protected because of that 

strong Gulf Stream. When it comes around, it probably would hit 

right out here, and within 24 hours potentially I think it was 

noted. 

Do you have enough assets to actually move that quick, or do you 

also depend on private sector assets? And is that a factor in what 

you are looking at if these defense cuts come about? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes, sir. First, we ought to clarify. The 

oil could move as far in 24 hours as 80 miles, but it did not mean 

that it is not going to move directly towards the State of Florida. 

It will move mostly coast wise parallel to our coast. 

Most of the projections would have oil at the quickest being 

somewhere around 5 days, although I probably should defer to Ms. 

Payton. But we are looking at more in the neighborhood of 5 to 10 

days before oil would actually be showing up near our shores because of all the different ways that it interacts. 

Second, you said what resources would we rely upon. In the 

United States and in most countries, the primary resources that 

are actually touching the oil are private sector. The Coast Guard 

and other governments or the EPA if it is in the right zones would 

oversee, coordinate, and direct the spill, but we rely upon the private sector to actually go out and do the work. So, that is where 

the bulk of the resources come from. 

There are Coast Guard resources that can go out and attack the 

oil. So, we have some buoy tenders under my control and other 

places in the Coast Guard on the eastern coast that have spill recovery systems that they can rig up and actually go out and recover oil. And we would have other ships that would go out there 

and monitor and direct operations and coordinate them. But the 

vast bulk of it is going to be private sector. 

Mr. GIBBS. You said dispersants would be really effective. Is that 

done by air? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Aerial dispersants is the most effective 

way. Well, that is not area. But aerial dispersants would be used. 

The first resource that is looked at are commercial activities, so one 

of the companies that is licensed in this area already has contracts 

for aircraft to actually apply those dispersants. 

Now, there are Coast Guard aircraft that also have crews that 

are trained to go out if necessary and apply the dispersants. And 

the Air Force Reserve or Air National Guard also has a squadron 

32 

that is specially prepared for this. It is up in Ohio actually up at 

Youngstown, Ohio. And they are set up to do this as well. 

Mr. GIBBS. Thank you. On liability, the International Maritime 

Organization, working through that and also Repsol is the Spanish 

company. I know Mr. Herbst requested you have discussions with 

countries around the Caribbean. Have the administration had any 

discussions with the Spanish Government on what they could do if 

there was an issue? And also how does that relate with the International Maritime Organization? Put pressure on, you know, a bad 

actor if there is a spill. 

Mr. HERBST. Yeah. I am not aware of any direct communication 

with the Spanish Government as far as oil spill response. The 

Coast Guard maybe, but not aware of anything in that area. 

Again, Repsol is an operator on the United States Outer Continental Shelf, so we are aware of their oil spill capabilities within 

the Gulf of Mexico, which is similar to other major operators in the 

Gulf of Mexico. 

Mr. GIBBS. I just have one other question. Do you anticipate that 

this drilling in these zones that there will horizontal drilling, too, 

or is it just conventional type straight down drilling? 

Mr. HERBST. I believe what our staff has reviewed is more of a 

conventional drilling, not a horizontal drilling, on this first well at 

least. 

Mr. GIBBS. Up in my area, fracking is a big concern, big issue. 

Are these wells typically fracked? 

Mr. HERBST. I am not real familiar with the zone, but they will 

be perforating. It is somewhat different than the Gulf of Mexico. I 

believe it is carbonate formation. 

Mr. GIBBS. Thank you. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you. Let me yield to Mr. Diaz-Balart now. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is this on? Mr. 

Chairman, let me first publicly thank Admiral Baumgartner, because he actually was very proactive and actually met with just 

about all the Members of the delegation, I know that. And he gave 

us briefings, and that is something I greatly appreciate, and I want 

to thank you for that. 

I want to thank all the members of the panel for being here as 

well. But I have a number of questions to Dr. Proni. 

Dr. Proni, I read your presentation, and I will tell you that it is 

probably one of the best presentations that I have read in a long 

time. 

Mr. PRONI. Thank you. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. And most thorough presentations. And I have 

a million questions, but I do not have time, so let me just throw 

some things out there for you real quickly. 

You mentioned that the response of the ecosystems, the different 

aspects, and I am quoting you, are unclear, yet without such information, it is impossible to best respond. You also mentioned that 

it is about 70,000 jobs. Just the coral system, I guess, might create 

about 70,000 jobs in South Florida alone. 

You talk about establishing partnerships, not only between the 

Federal Government, but also between local institutions that have 

experience, local knowledge data, expertise, et cetera. And has that 

33 

taken place already as far as understanding a real effort to do 

that? 

Actually let me just let you respond to that, and I will throw 

some other questions out there. 

Mr. PRONI. We have been having discussions among the scientific 

institutions in South Florida, which have included NOVA University, University Miami, and Florida International, and the three regional Federal laboratories that are located down here, AOML, the 

National Hurricane Center, and Southeast Fisheries Centers. 

For the last 21⁄2 years, some of my colleagues and I have been 

visiting Washington talking to the agencies, trying to suggest to 

them the best time to start doing things is way in advance of an 

actual oil spill occurring. The responses we have been getting have 

been very sympathetic, but everyone seems to say it is somebody 

else bailiwick. And then when you look at it in detail, it is not clear 

whose responsibility it is other than the response of the Coast 

Guard. The rest is vaguer. 

So, yes, we are preparing for it. We have assembled the capability that is required, and we stand ready to proceed. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Thank you, Doctor. I was also surprised to 

learn what you report, only about 50 percent of the Florida Reef 

Track coral resources have been mapped, which frankly was a big 

shock to me, knowing what resource that is, and something that is 

so utilized as to be part of our economy. 

But you mentioned that the U.S. Coast Guard response appears 

focused on surface modernization with Cuban oil and the use of 

dispersants. And you mentioned how with Deepwater Horizon millions of gallons of dispersants were also used in deep water. 

And you mentioned how, I guess there are a lot of questions as 

to what the impact of those dispersants could be, even, I guess, the 

makeup of the oil dispersants on ecosystems. 

Do you care to comment on that a little bit as to, again, that is 

the question I had concerning the Deepwater Horizon issue, and I 

never really got an answer. We do not have those answers, would 

that be fair to say, as to what the effects could be? 

Mr. PRONI. Well, there are potential concerns with the notion of 

dispersants added to oil. The EPA colleagues are concerned about 

it, but also some colleagues that I have outside the EPA are concerned about whether—basically that you would have to evaluate 

environmental effects not only of the oil, but of the dispersants plus 

oil. You have to do both of those things. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Kind of changing the subject now also to the 

Coast Guard. You know, we are dealing with a regime that reportedly has plans or has had plans to attack at a certain point their 

facilities if, in fact, they felt threatened. Has the administration 

has the Department of Defense looking at worst case scenario, the 

possibility that the regime is, you know, on the border of collapse 

or whatever for whatever reason, or just because it either tried to 

blackmail the United States like they have done with different administrations with migrant issue, number one, and number two is, 

if they did a Saddam Hussein type oil field attack for whatever reason. Are you contemplating both those scenarios? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Well, sir, probably the easiest thing to 

say is that with Cuba so close, we contemplate many, many sceVerDate Aug 31 2005 13:17 Mar 12, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00047 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 P:\HEARINGS\112\CG\1-30-1~1\72582.TXT JEAN
34 

narios. We have thought about different security implications and 

so forth. 

One thing that we do know is that the primary shoreline that 

will be impacted and devastated by a spill in most of these sites, 

particularly where the first site is located, is going to be the Cuban 

coast. And there could be catastrophic impacts to much of their 

northern coast where their tourism industry, their budding tourism 

industry is trying to take root. 

So, there are definitely a lot of self-interest issues there for the 

Cubans if they going to deliberately release oil from these sites. 

They would be significantly impacted. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Thank you. I see my time has run out. Mr. 

Chairman, thank you. I will talk to you when we get back to Washington about the possibility of seeing if we can get some movement 

on Dr. Proni’s about all the local and other resources that are 

available. 

Mr. MICA. I would be glad to work with you, and thank you. Let 

me recognize Mr. Rivera. 

Mr. RIVERA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will start my questions 

for Mr. Herbst, if you will. I was quite struck by your testimony 

and your response to the questions of some of my colleagues regarding what you stated was an informal review and a cursory review of the oil rig Scarabeo 9, and where you stated you did find 

some issues. And I thought those issues were quite extraordinary. 

You said there was cases of unsafe welding, incomplete wiring, 

and so forth that you were assured would be corrected. How will 

we know? 

Mr. HERBST. Well, unfortunately, in this situation where we do 

not have a followup visit prior to operations commencing, we will 

only have the word from Repsol since we cannot go out there and 

verify ourselves. 

Mr. RIVERA. Well, that is pretty extraordinary testimony, the fact 

that we are going to have imminently an oil rig drilling off the 

coast of Florida that you yourself have said, based on your inspection, would not have been certified for U.S. waters. Is that correct? 

Mr. HERBST. Without a followup inspection, we would not allow 

it to drill. 

Mr. RIVERA. Well, we have a problem then. We have got a major 

problem. If there is a rig 80 miles off the coast of Florida that our 

own Government has said would not be certified for drilling in U.S. 

waters, then I need to ask you, what can we possibly do? What else 

can we possibly do? And let us forget about the Castro dictatorship 

for right now. Let us focus on Repsol. 

I want to know what we can do to make sure that if something 

does happen, how we inflict maximum pain on Repsol, how we 

bleed Repsol, if you will, to whatever extent possible if something 

does happen on a rig that we ourselves have said would not be certified for U.S. operation? 

Mr. HERBST. Again, I should emphasize that we cannot go verify 

physically ourselves now. 

Mr. RIVERA. I understand. What can we do? How can we inflict 

maximum pain on Repsol if something does happen? 

Mr. HERBST. Again, let me state that we are in continual negotiations—not negotiations, but discussions with Repsol on the staVerDate Aug 31 2005 13:17 Mar 12, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00048 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 P:\HEARINGS\112\CG\1-30-1~1\72582.TXT JEAN
35 

tus of what we have found there. I do not have that update for you 

today. 

Now, as far as what we can do for Repsol, who we deal with in 

the U.S. as far as Gulf of Mexico OCS operations, is a subsidiary 

of Repsol that is incorporated in the United States. 

Mr. RIVERA. Well, in other in other cases, are there sanctions in 

other cases, whether it be denial of mineral rights or minerals 

easements, are there other cases, examples, of inflicting punishment on companies that may inflict damages on our natural resource interest? 

Mr. HERBST. What we do is we continually review performance 

of various operators. That performance, a poor performance, can 

lead to various steps, first being probation, second being disqualification. 

Mr. RIVERA. Disqualification of the current exploration. 

Mr. HERBST. It can be of their current operations, and it can also 

prohibit them from acquiring any more leases in the U.S. OCS. 

And the Department also has Department procedures as well. 

Mr. RIVERA. Department procedures. And all of those procedures, 

all of those denials would apply to Repsol? 

Mr. HERBST. Generally they apply to performance on the Federal 

OCS, or the Outer Continental Shelf. 

Mr. RIVERA. So, they would not apply to Repsol in a case where, 

for example, where you have said there is unsafe welding, incomplete wiring. If there is something that happens, those prohibitions, 

those punishments would not apply to Repsol? 

Mr. HERBST. I cannot confirm at this point for operations that 

occur outside the OCS. 

Mr. RIVERA. Well, we need to confirm that. We need to confirm 

that. We need to confirm that pronto, because if you look at that 

map that I pointed to earlier, and you look at that Gulf loop current, if something happens, that oil is coming right here to these 

beaches that you see right here. And even if there is not a spill, 

even if there is a blackout, an electrical failure because of the wiring, the incomplete wiring you talked about, even if something happens with the unsafe welding and there is a report about that, that 

map you see there is going to be on CNN, and MSNBC, and Fox 

News. And those folks on the beach that you see here that out 

there, they are not going to be out there because they are going to 

be worried about some sort of unsafe welding or incomplete wiring 

going on off the coast of Florida and a potential spill. They will not 

be out there. They will be on other beaches somewhere else. 

So, we need to figure out what we can do to inflict maximum 

pain, maximum punishment, to bleed Repsol of whatever resources 

they may have if there is a potential for a spill that will affect the 

U.S. coast. So, I hope you will look into that and verify that for us. 

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Mr. MICA. Thank you. Let me yield now to Mr. West. 

Mr. WEST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, you know, Admiral 

Baumgartner, it seems pretty funny that a year ago we were up 

at the Lakewood Inlet Coast Guard station with Captain Graham 

and Captain Scraper. We were talking about this exact same issue 

just a year ago, and here we are right now. So, I think that is one 

of the failures we have to look at is that I do not think anyone was 

36 

taking you very seriously. And it is sad that we have gotten to this 

point. 

With that being said, I know that you had a table top exercise 

that you conducted. What do you think are the two to three maybe 

critical lessons learned that you got from that table top exercise, 

because as Dr. Proni brought out, and, you know, having a military 

background, I do not like ad hoc formulations. So, I want to make 

sure that as best we possibly can we are ready to get going from 

the start. 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes, sir. Some of the critical lessons 

learned from that one is although we think we will get, we believe 

we will get prompt notification or detection of a spill, but the ability to coordinate response efforts once there is oil in the water is 

important. And that was one of the things highlighted in that particular exercise. 

Repsol, the Cuban Government, will be responsible for their efforts in the Cuban EEZ. We have authority to go in there if it is 

cooperative and coordinated with them. So, having a mechanism to 

go ahead and do that so we can attack oil there before it gets to 

us is important. That is probably the biggest thing that was highlighted in that particular exercise. 

I think one of the other things there is the continued importance 

of ensuring that local governments, including local elected officials, 

are aware of the plans, not just their emergency managers, but 

they are all aware of that. 

So, after that exercise, I personally had a phone conversation 

with all the directors of emergency management, and I have engaged myself with some of the critical elected local officials, including Mayor Gimenez here in Miami-Dade and other places. Those 

are some of the most important things. 

Understanding the cascading of resources that needs to happen 

to get spill equipment down into the area is critically important as 

well. 

Mr. WEST. Do you have and identified an organizational structure, chain of command, you know, because with a manning document that we could quickly get filled? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And there are a couple 

of key things here. 

We have left in place the normal structure for protecting the actual shoreline areas, so we have incident command posts that we 

would set up at my sectors in Key West, Miami, and actually up 

in Jacksonville. They have good relations with the local officials, 

NGOs, and everything in that area. That would be basically the 

nearshore, the beach line defense, the inlet defense. 

We have a new command that we established that was the focus 

of this exercise, which is an offshore response command. We do 

have a manning chart. Key people are pre-identified so we know 

exactly how to go through that. We have checklists that look at 

what we need to do in the first 12 hours, the first 24 hours, then 

24 to 48 hours, so we can go through a checklist. 

Our command centers have pre-scripted quick response sheets so 

the moment a command report comes in, actually even if it comes 

in to our national command center in Washington, they know the 

exact sheet of information and what to start going so that we can 

37 

respond immediately. So, those are identified, and that is the kind 

of stuff that, well, you would expect, and that is what we are going 

to do. 

Mr. WEST. Last question. When we talk about being prepared 

and having a pre-position of equipment, emergency response equipment, have we identified the type of equipment that we would 

need, and do we have the facilities here or capabilities to be able 

to pre-position some of that equipment so, as you say, we are not 

dialing out and trying to get these things here while this incident 

has occurred? So, I will ask that to the broader panel. 

What type of things do you think we should have pre-positioned 

here, and do we have the facilities by which we can have some of 

this equipment pre-positioned so we are not having to jump start? 

Admiral BAUMGARTNER. OK, sir. Some of the important things 

are, of course, vessels, vessels that can go out and do either in-situ 

burning if you need that, or offshore skimming and nearshore 

skimming. So, those have been identified. 

Some of the assets are there, particularly, say, skimmers that 

can work close into shore and the inshore environment. We have 

107 different oil skimmers in the State of Florida already. 

The biggest resource that we probably do not have that we would 

have to cascade and move in are offshore skimmers, so large vessels that can go, you know, a dozen miles or 100 miles away from 

Miami and conduct operations. Fortunately, we have one of the 

largest and most capable offshore oil skimmers that is permanently 

based here in this part of Miami, and that belongs to one of the 

private spill response organizations. 

The ability to apply to dispersants, that is something that we 

have identified. Boom is another critical resource, especially the 

right type of boom and how we would use that. We have over 

300,000 feet of boom in the State of Florida already. 

In any particular response, though, you are going to look to cascade and move in resources from all over the country, and we have 

a pretty good organization that has identified these, inventoried 

them, and is ready to move those through. We have talked to oil 

spill response organizations throughout the eastern part of the 

country. We have talked to oil spill—I am sorry, oil industry support vessels, OSV owners, over in the Gulf of Mexico where they 

have a significant amount of capability so that they are ready to 

start moving perhaps as many as 80 offshore supply vessels in our 

direction within 48 to 60 hours. So we are looking at all of those 

things. 

Mr. WEST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Mr. MICA. Well, I thank all of the Members for participating 

today, especially those from out of town for coming, being with us, 

of course serving on the committee, and the South Florida Members. I want to thank all of the panelists and witnesses who have 

provided us with some preliminary information. 

The record is being left open for several weeks now, and we will 

possibly be submitting additional questions to you. I want to recognize Dave Jansen, who is with Ranking Member Rahall. He has 

joined us today, and if either side of the aisle wants to submit additional questions, they will be made part of the official record of this 

proceeding. 

38 

So, this hearing has probably raised more questions than it has 

answered, but it is a preliminary review of the consequences of offshore drilling in Cuba and the Bahamas, and also trying to meet 

our responsibility in oversight of the United States Coast Guard, 

which is responsible as our primary agency for response in the 

event of a spill. Plus our committee oversees the Oil Spill Liability 

Trust Fund. 

So, we will probably continue these proceedings back in Washington, and we will look additionally at what challenges we face 

and where the committee goes from here. 

Thank Mr. Rivera for his legislation, and we will try to get that 

reviewed and see, again, what other legislative and administrative 

responses are necessary. 

That being said, there being no further business before this Subcommittee on United States Coast Guard or the Committee on 

Transportation and Infrastructure, this meeting is adjourned. 

Thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 12:08 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

39 


Insert offset folio 11 here 72582.011
40 


Insert offset folio 12 here 72582.012
41 


Insert offset folio 13 here 72582.013
42 


Insert offset folio 14 here 72582.014
43 


Insert offset folio 15 here 72582.015
44 


Insert offset folio 16 here 72582.016
45 


Insert offset folio 17 here 72582.017
46 


Insert offset folio 18 here 72582.018
47 


Insert offset folio 19 here 72582.019
48 


Insert offset folio 20 here 72582.020
49 


Insert offset folio 21 here 72582.021
50 


Insert offset folio 22 here 72582.022
51 


Insert offset folio 23 here 72582.023
52 


Insert offset folio 24 here 72582.024
53 


Insert offset folio 25 here 72582.025
54 


Insert offset folio 26 here 72582.026
55 


Insert offset folio 27 here 72582.027
56 


Insert offset folio 28 here 72582.028
57 


Insert offset folio 29 here 72582.029
58 


Insert offset folio 30 here 72582.030
59 


Insert offset folio 31 here 72582.031
60 


Insert offset folio 32 here 72582.032
61 


Insert offset folio 33 here 72582.033
62 


Insert offset folio 34 here 72582.034
63 


Insert offset folio 35 here 72582.035
64 


Insert offset folio 36 here 72582.036
65 


Insert offset folio 37 here 72582.037
66 

Æ 


Insert offset folio 38 here 72582.038