HOUSTON -- As two powerful hurricanes battered the Gulf Coast in 2005, we were focused on the human toll. However, there was another story unfolding in the open water at the drilling rigs, oil fields and pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaking to Houston oil executives, Republican presumptive nominee for president John McCain called for more drilling in the Gulf, claiming drilling was environmentally safe, even in the face of major storms.

"As for offshore drilling, it's safe enough these days,” McCain told the group of oil executives. “Not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita would cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston."

But is that true?

Every expert KHOU-TV consulted said something else.

"So to say there were no spills during a hurricane, you know, it was an inaccurate statement,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.

Lipow supports more drilling in the Gulf, but says the senator was wrong. So does a report on the impact of the storms on oil facilities along the coast. According to a federally funded study, “there were 124 offshore spills during Katrina and Rita, with 743,700 gallons of oil lost… Six spills were more than a thousand barrels with the largest, 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana.”

Environmental groups jumped on McCain’s statements.

"You would expect a U.S. Senator to be better informed especially when he's making a policy reversal that offshore drilling is now okay,” said David Foster of Clean Water Action.

What McCain said in Houston has since become a conservative talking point. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthore repeated it. Then it appeared in a Washington Post column, and later, in a Wall Street Journal editorial."

The McCain campaign said the senator picked the phrase "significant spills" in his speech on purpose, conceding in a statement to KHOU-TV that there were spills, just not large ones.

Lipow says he supports McCain's larger message that offshore drilling is safe.

"I think that over time the technology has improved to such a point that they can be constructed safer and can withstand category five hurricanes,” said Lipow.

Environmentalists disagree with that. Moreover, even some oil experts said McCain's claim about spills during hurricanes, may have been overblown.