Key Republican: Blow up the well
Who says they’re the party of no ideas? (link)
A Republican congressman suggested over the weekend that BP detonate dynamite to seal its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.), who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee that grilled BP CEO Tony Hayward last week, said that he has had knowledgeable people advise him that the solution could cap the leak.
“For the life of me, I can’t understand why BP couldn’t go into the ocean floor, maybe 10 feet lateral to the — around the periphery — drill a few holes and put a little ammonium nitrate, some dynamite, in those holes and detonate that dynamite and seal that leak. And seal it permanently,” he told Atlanta’s WABE radio. “And although I didn’t ask him that question yesterday — I think I had three minutes — if we get another bite at that apple, I’m going to ask that question, over and over again. What is going on here? I feel like, and I’ve had people advise me — people in my own district, by the way, who have a lot of experience in mining — say that this could be done.”
So let’s recap. Wingnut solutions to the oil spill:
1) Prayer
2) Bomb something.
Steve Benen points out:
Josh Marshall added that Gingrey offered “a good example of why it’s good to have engineers running the relief efforts and not congressmen.”
True, but it’s worth adding that Gingrey will be helping lead the House Energy Committee next year if Republicans re-take the House.