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 of the May 16, 2010 episode of Meet the Press:

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) | The US receives 30% of it’s oil from the Gulf of Mexico

If McConnell meant 30% of US crude oil consumption – FALSE
If McConnell meant 30% of US domestic crude oil production – TRUE

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY) | W/o GOM crude oil, gas would be $14 (a gallon) – UNCONFIRMABLE

SEN. McCONNELL: As horrible as this is, it’s important to remember that we get 30 percent of our oil from the Gulf and, if you shut that down, you’d have $14 gasoline.

So we are going to try something new with this fact-check. Because Sen. McConnell’s statement is vague enough to be misleading, we have fact-checked both possible meanings of it, which hinge on what the definition of “our” is. If Sen. McConnell means that 30% of the crude oil that the US consumes comes from the Gulf of Mexico, then his statement is FALSE. If Sen McConnell means that 30% of the crude oil that the US produces comes from the Gulf of Mexico, then his statement is TRUE.

According to the US Energy Information Administration:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oog/special/gulf/gulf_fact_sheet.html

The entire US domestic production of crude oil accounted for 28% of US liquid fuel consumption in 2009.
Gulf of Mexico crude oil production accounted for 8% of US liquid fuel consumption in 2009.
Gulf of Mexico crude oil production accounted for 30% of overall US crude oil production in 2009 (and makes up  19% of US reserves).

Another interesting fact from crowd-sourcer kcars1:

In addition, US has only 2.2% of the world oil reserves and GOM accounts for 19%, so GOM accounts for 0.42% of world reserves. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-wo…

Regarding the $14 a gallon gasoline, we were unable to find data to back up or refute that. That also means we were unable to find the data Sen. McConnell would be able to use to cite that number. Additionally, if GOM crude oil production equals only 8% of total US liquid fuel consumption, it seems unlikely that the loss of that 8% would result in a 466% increase in gasoline prices. (Gas currently averages around $3/gal) Regardless, until more information can be found or made available, Sen. McConnell’s statement cannot be confirmed at this time.

Special thanks to crowd-sourcers kcars1 and Joshua for assisting with this fact-check.

This fact-check took a combined 2.5 hours.