GOP lawmaker downplays drilling risks, compares to 'slipping on ice'

By Andrew Restuccia - 01/26/11 04:38 PM ET

A House Republican compared the risks of offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday to the risks associated with driving a car or slipping on ice.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), an ardent proponent of offshore drilling in the Gulf and in Alaska, also said the national oil spill commission was biased in favor of restricting access to drilling.

“They’re all against the development of offshore drilling and onshore, by the way,” Young said.

Young made the comments at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing during which the co-chairmen of the spill commission testified. The commission released a report earlier this month that blamed "systemic" problems in the oil industry and within the federal government for last year's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Even after commission co-chairman William Reilly pointed out that some of the 79 Gulf of Mexico drilling incidents in recent decades resulted in fatalities, Young said there will always be risks associated with drilling.

He compared the risks to “driving down the street, slipping on ice."

"There’s going to be a chance,” he said.

Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and the commission’s other co-chairman, former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), pushed back against accusations by Young and other House Republicans that the panel was biased.

“It seems to me now a little churlish to refer back to the [commissioners’] credentials without saying in some way how they’re connected to the inadequacies in the report, which nobody seems to be doing,” Reilly said, arguing that the report is fair and balanced.

The commission, which was formed by President Obama in May, has faced criticism from Republicans for its membership, which includes Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke.

Young initially said the commission’s report called for restricting Arctic drilling. But Reilly corrected the lawmaker, saying the report recommended drilling in the region after additional study.

“For 40 years, we’ve been drilling in the Arctic,” Young said. “We’ve been doing the drilling and we’ve done the studies and we’ve done the work.”