The following is a fact-check of the August 1, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

GOV. ED RENDELL (D-PA) | Less than 5% of Americans objected to the “deal” the government arranged with BP [to set up a $20 billion escrow fund to pay for the damage of the oil spill]. – LIKELY FALSE

GOV. RENDELL:  I think we hold the House.  We lose significant seats, but we hold.  And I think we hold the Senate only because the Republicans have made a slew of mistakes, PR mistakes like opposing unemployment compensation extension, like going after the president for the BP deal.  There weren’t 5 percent of Americans who didn’t think that was a good deal.

The deal Governor Rendell is referring to here is the $20 billion escrow fund that the Obama administration convinced BP to voluntarily establish to pay for damage done by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Governor however is already in trouble with the way he makes this statement, as not including “a poll says” or “about” means it’s automatically impossible to ever declare this (definitive) statement TRUE – but in addition to that we could find no data anywhere to back up his number. The only poll we could find that even asked about the $20 billion escro fund was this mid-June CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, in which 82% said they approved of the deal, and 18% said they did not.

While according to this one survey, a significant majority of Americans certainly do approve of the BP escrow deal, Gov. Rendell is still way off with his number, which as far as we can tell did not come from any poll. However, since we only found one poll on which to base this check and therefore cannot speak with much authority as to what percentage of Americans truly do disapprove of the BP escrow deal, we will rate Gov. Rendell’s statement LIKELY FALSE.

If any of our readers know of another poll on this issue that we somehow missed, please let us know in the comments.

This fact-check took a combined 1.5 hours.

The following is a fact-check from the June 20, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R-MS) | The $20 billion BP put in escrow will be paid in $5 billion increments over a period of four years – TRUE

GOV. BARBOUR: Right. Well, I thought that they were talking about taking $20 billion from BP all at once, and my fear was if you took $20 billion from them all at once, put it in an escrow account, then they wouldn’t have the working capital to generate the revenue to pay us. I think the president was smart, and I congratulate him and BP that they reached an agreement. Instead of $20 billion taken out of that working capital all at once, it’s actually going to be $5 billion this year, $5 billion the next year, $5 billion the following year and $5 billion the fourth year.

According to both a Washington Post and CBS news article, under the deal, BP will put $5 billion annually into escrow for the next four years to pay damage claims from the Gulf of Mexico. Therefore, we rate Gov. Barbour’s statement TRUE.

The following fact-check took a combined 1 hour.

The following is a fact-check from the June, 20, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA) | There is a BP document stating that oil flow may go up as high as 100,000 barrels per day – TRUE

REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Right now, again, we’re dependent upon BP and the execution of their capacity to be able to put a cap over this well. I actually have a document that shows that BP actually believes it could go upwards of 100,000 barrels per day, which would be about four million barrels a day.

According to an internal BP document which was released by Rep. Ed Markey, the oil flow rate on the Deepwater Horizon rig could get as high as 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Here is what the document says:

Note: If BOP and wellhead are removed and if we have incorrectly modeled the restrictions – the rate could be as high as – 100,000 barrels per day up the casing or 55,000 barrels per day up the annulus (low probability worst cases)

Therefore, because the document clearly states the oil flow rate could go as high as 100,000 bpd, we will rate Rep. Markey’s statement TRUE.

This fact-check took 30 minutes.

The following is a fact-check from the May 30, 2010 episode of Meet the Press.

CAROL BROWNER | There have not been similar accidents with underwater wells – FALSE

MS. BROWNER: David, I, I, I think that we have to understand all of these things going forward. But I do think it’s important to understand that these wells have been drilled for several decades now. There have not been these kinds of accidents.

An accident occurred on June 3, 1979, on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico called Ixtoc, where for 10 months oil spilled uncontrollably into the Gulf. The similarities between the Ixtoc accident and the Deepwater Horizon are identical other than the water depth at which the Deepwater Horizon is located. The Ixtoc accident involved an initial blowout and platform fire, uncontrolled gushing of oil into Gulf, faulty BOP, attempts to cap oil, and two relief wells. The Deepwater Horizon accident has involved an initial blowout and platform fire, uncontrolled gushing of oil into Gulf, broken BOP, multiple attempts to cap oil, and two relief wells are currently being dug.

Robert Dudley (BP) made a similar claim on the same episode of Meet the Press, and through a previous fact-check, we found his statement FALSE, as we also find Carol Browner’s statement FALSE.

This fact-check took 10 minutes.

The following is a fact-check from the May 30, 2010 episode of Meet the Press.

ROBERT DUDLEY (BP)

1) The Deepwater Horizon accident was unprecedented  – FALSE

2) Blowout preventers are on more than 5,000 deepwater wells and have not failed before – HALF TRUE

MR. DUDLEY: This is an unprecedented accident. These, these blowout preventers which are used on oil and gas wells all around the world and have been used on more than 5,000 deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico have not failed before.

According to NPR, an accident occurred on June 3, 1979, on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico called Ixtoc where for 10 months oil spilled uncontrollably into the Gulf. The similarities between the Ixtoc accident and the Deepwater Horizon are startling. Here is what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported from Ixtoc:

The oil and gas blowing out of the well ignited, causing the platform to catch fire. The burning platform collapsed into the wellhead area hindering any immediate attempts to control the blowout. PEMEX hired blowout control experts and other spill control experts including Red Adair, Martech International of Houston, and the Mexican diving company, Daivaz. The Martech response included 50 personnel on site, the remotely operated vehicle TREC, and the submersible Pioneer I. The TREC attempted to find a safe approach to the Blowout Preventer (BOP). The approach was complicated by poor visibility and debris on the seafloor including derrick wreckage and 3000 meters of drilling pipe. Divers were eventually able to reach and activate the BOP, but the pressure of the oil and gas caused the valves to begin rupturing. The BOP was reopened to prevent destroying it. Two relief wells were drilled to relieve pressure from the well to allow response personnel to cap it. Norwegian experts were contracted to bring in skimming equipment and containment booms, and to begin cleanup of the spilled oil. The IXTOC I well continued to spill oil at a rate of 10,000 – 30,000 barrels per day until it was finally capped on March 23, 1980.

Another accident occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in Febuary 2000, where the connection from the blowout preventer and the rig was severed, releasing 150-200 barrels of oil into the sea. Again, the Wall Street Journal reports two more offshore accidents occurring in 2001 involving faulty BOP components. And according to the Associated Press, the U.S. Minerals and Management Service have reported 14 separate instances where blowout preventers (BOP) have failed, since 2005.

1) The Ixtoc accident that occurred in 1979 involved an initial blowout and platform fire, uncontrolled gushing of oil into Gulf, faulty BOP, attempts to cap oil, and two relief wells. The Deepwater Horizon accident has involved an initial blowout and platform fire, uncontrolled gushing of oil into Gulf, broken BOP, multiple attempts to cap oil, and two relief wells are being dug. Identical, except that the Ixtoc accident did not occur in such a great depth of water as BP’s Deepwater Horizon, but other than the depth, the similarities of the attempts to stop the gushers are practically identical. Even though the Deepwater Horizon accident occurred at a greater depth (5000 ft.), we still rate Mr. Dudley’s statement FALSE as it was obviously not unprecedented.

2) We were not able to track down the exact amount of blowout preventers on deepwater wells, but since the numerous reports of faulty BOPs occurring between early 2000 and today makes his statement FALSE, yet his inclusion of “deepwater” makes his statement TRUE – we rate Mr. Dudley’s misleading statement HALF TRUE.

This fact-check took a combined 2 hours.

The following is a fact-check from the May 30, 2010 episode of Meet the Press.

ROBERT DUDLEY (BP) | Industry standards include checking blowout preventers every 14 days – TRUE

MR. DUDLEY: I don’t think so. The industry has–all around the world these pieces of equipment are inspected regularly, and in the U.S. they’re inspected every 14 days. This is a very unusual failure. We need to find out why. We need to learn from it and, and change the industry for good.|

According to the New York Times, over a decade ago, the frequency of blowout preventer inspections went from once a week to once every 14 days. The oil industry insisted the change because the inspections were to much of a disruption to oil production. Therefore, we will rate Mr. Dudley’s statement TRUE

This fact-check took 30 minutes.

The following is a fact-check from the May 30, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

ROBERT DUDLEY (BP) | Original oil flow estimates were 5,000 barrels a day and were based on satellite pictures – HALF TRUE

MR. DUDLEY:  The original estimates, which were government and BP estimates together, primarily unified estimates of 5,000 barrels a day, were based on satellite pictures.

According to ABC news, the coast guard and BP originally estimated that only a 1000 barrels of oil a day were spilling into the gulf. Then, according to the New York Times, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, through aerial observations, made the estimate of 5,000 barrels a day. After the new estimate by the NOAA, Admiral Landry, of the Coast Guard, conducted a press conference emphasizing that the leak was 5,000 barrels a day, not a 1,000 barrels that had been previously reported. However, Doug Suttle, chief operating officer for BP, still claimed that the original estimate of a 1,000 barrels was accurate.

The NOAA estimate of 5000 barrels were based on aerial observations, but that estimate was not the original, it was the second. The first estimate was only a 1,000 barrels of oil spilling a day. Therefore, we will rate Mr. Dudley’s misleading statement HALF TRUE.

This fact check took 1.5 hours.