WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Congressional leaders are clamoring for more information on why BP had so abruptly decided to close down its Prudhoe Bay oil field.
Late Thursday, Senators Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman and ranking member respectively of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wrote to Thomas Barrett, U.S. Department of Transportation's administrator of Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, for information on the closure of the Alaskan oil field.
"We are concerned by reports of significant pipeline corrosion in the eastern operating area of Prudhoe Bay, as well as previously known corrosion in the western operating area, as discovered in the March 2006 spill of approximately 5,000 barrels of oil," they said in the letter. "Additionally, early reports of the discovery of 16 anomalies at 12 locations in a three-mile area of the eastern area are distressing, and, if true, inexcusable."
Meanwhile, House energy and commerce committee chairman, Joe Barton, R-Texas, announced that a hearing on the shutdown has been scheduled for Sept. 7, after Congress returns from summer recess.
