In response to President Obama's appointment of a partisan oil spill commission that is ideologically opposed to domestic energy production, Cassidy introduced legislation to create a bipartisan, independent commission of experts to investigate the Deepwater Horizon spill.  Cassidy's proposal passed unanimously in the House Natural Resources Committee.

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Cassidy Proposes New Panel

Baton Rouge Advocate
By GERARD SHIELDS
July 19, 2010

The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee passed an amendment this past week by U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, that would create a new commission to investigate the Gulf oil leak.

The panel would fly in the face of a commission already appointed by President Barack Obama, which began holding its first hearings this past week. Cassidy and other opponents of the Obama commission say it is stacked with environmentalists and those opposed to oil drilling and that it lacks industry expertise.

The Cassidy commission would be called the National Commission on Outer Continental Shelf Oil Spill Prevention. A similar amendment has been passed by a Senate committee.

“Our response has to be guided by facts, and not by politics or ideology,” Cassidy said. “We have a commission appointed by the president to get root causes that doesn’t have anyone with experience as to the root causes.”