Newly released internal documents show the oil giant BP estimates its Gulf of Mexico oil spill could top 100,000 barrels or over four million gallons of oil per day. The number far exceeds the government’s worst-case estimate of 2.5 million gallons, or 60,000 barrels a day. It’s also 100 times the spill rate BP initially claimed and twenty-times what it later told Congress. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Democratic Congress member Ed Markey criticized BP for concealing its estimate.

Rep. Ed Markey: “So, again, right from the beginning, BP was either lying or grossly incompetent. First they said it was only 1,000 barrels, then they said it was 5,000 barrels, now we’re up to 100,000 barrels. It was their technology. It was their spill cam. They’re the ones that should have known, right from the beginning, and either to limit their liability or because they were grossly incompetent, they delayed a full response to the magnitude of this disaster.”