Governor Says Montana Was Misled on Oil Spill

[Derechos]

HELENA, Mont. — Gov. Brian Schweitzer criticized Exxon Mobil on Friday for its handling of the Yellowstone River oil spill, saying that the company had withheld documents and misled state officials and local residents about the pipeline rupture.

He also accused the company of failing to honor open-government laws by denying the state access to Exxon Mobil documents. And as a result, he said, the state is pulling its people from an incident command task force set up to assess and clean up the spill, which occurred July 1.

At a public meeting of about 100 people along the river, the governor passed out sample jars for residents to fill with contaminated soil and water for testing. The evidence, he said, could be used in claims against Exxon Mobil.

The list of the governor’s grievances was long. At first, he said, the company reported that the pipe had been turned off within six minutes. Federal records show it was nearly an hour.

Company executives also initially said that oil had affected just 10 miles of the river, but “now oil has completely inundated the low-lying areas of a state park 40 miles downriver.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/us/09spill.html?_r=1&ref=us

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Who could have imagined?

If only we had known the flight number and seat assignme . . . .

OOPS, wrong excuse file. Let's see. Where did I put my Gulf file?

[Stargazer99]

2. When are you "right" wingers going to learn?

Montana being basically Republican/Rightwing country is finally getting their noses rubbed in it. I doubt they will learn anything from something that should be smacking them across the face. Talk about RW being dumb! Or maybe they just have not been couragous enough to be honest with themselves.