BP’s embattled chief executive, Tony Hayward, waited to tell Congress on Thursday that he was “deeply sorry” for the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, seeking to demonstrate that he and the oil giant understood the enormity of the spill’s environmental, economic and human toll.
Mr. Hayward has faced withering criticism for his response to the spill, and from the opening remarks delivered by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, that indignation was already clear. Not all of it, however, was directed at him.
Representative Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, whose investigations and oversight subcommittee is holding the hearing, said the committee searched 30,000 BP documents in vain looking for evidence of attention to the risks of the Macondo well.
Full story: BP Chief Expresses Contrition to House Panel – NYTimes.com.