Despite calls from Washington and beyond to guarantee that another BP-style oil spill will not happen again, Congress has done “zero” on the issue in the year since the tragic events in the Gulf of Mexico, a leading House Democrat told us on ABC’s “Top Line” today. 

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a senior member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said there has “absolutely not” been any progress in terms of ensuring there won’t be a repeat.

“We are exactly where we were, other than the public understands more clearly how reckless and what the negligence was that got us there,” Woolsey told us today. “But are we preventing it? Do you have better programs in place for mitigation and cleanup? No we don't, but we could.”

Woolsey is pushing a bill that would better coordinate the federal response to an incident like the BP explosion, and explore better ways to mitigate the impact.

But asked what Congress has actually enacted in the wake of the BP spill to make sure the next accident isn’t as bad, she responded: “Zero.”

She also bemoaned the lack of progress in establishing new, renewable energy sources: “We have to have alternative energies. We have to have conservation. People are willing to do it. They want to. They need their federal government to lead.”

Woolsey also blasted House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal – which was approved by the full House last week – as a bil that would leave seniors “out there to dry.”

“The seniors are just going to be left out there to dry,” she said. “And we can't let that happen. Seniors are not going to let that happen. And people who are depending on Medicare because of other needs in their families and their lives, they will not let that happen either. But particularly seniors -- seniors vote.”

Source: http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/04/rep-woolsey-zero-done-to-prevent-another-bp-style-spill.html